It has been remarkably quiet in the month since Tom Brady slipped out of NFL headquarters through a garage following his lengthy Deflategate appeal hearing. Now, as the New England Patriots quarterback and NFL Players Association await NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's ruling on whether to uphold, reduce or overturn Brady's four-game suspension, the threat of a lawsuit looms. "Just the idea that this suit might be brought is reason enough to give the NFL some pause that even winning might bring out unflattering information and bad publicity that the league seems particularly c...
When an ad pops up in your Web browser, there's a lot going on behind the scenes. Advertisers are competing for the space in front of you in what amounts to an auction. In milliseconds, their computers have to decide how much they are willing to pay for a few seconds of your attention, while the website's computers choose which advertisers' bids to accept. Throwing out the old assumption, Tardos and colleagues at the University of Virginia and Microsoft Research have proposed a method for inferring what advertisers believe an ad is worth based on the assumption that bidders have be...
The consternation comes after an immigrant in the country illegally was charged recently with killing a San Francisco woman. There is also confusion over what "sanctuary city" means. One problem: There isn't a clear definition, experts say. And the city denies it is one under any definition. The term began to pop up in the 1980s, when many Central American expats flocked to the U.S. in search of political asylum, said David Martin, an international law professor at the University of Virginia. "There's not much under Virginia law that could be labeled a sanctuary policy,&...
After winning its second national championship in the last three years, Virginia tennis may get a new home. As part of a 10-year strategic planning process that began in 2012, a new outdoor tennis facility worthy of hosting NCAA championships has been identified as a portion of UVa’s proposed athletic facilities projects. A football support building and enhancements to baseball’s Davenport Field are also on the list.
The University of Virginia’s College at Wise found out on Friday it is now a full-fledged NCAA Division II school. With the news, UVa-Wise has now completed a three-year transition process and full membership means that all 13 sports at UVa-Wise will be eligible for postseason play beginning this fall.
ProPublica’s Surgeon Scorecard illustrates the disparities among surgeons performing the same procedure—sometimes in the same hospital—and is providing new insight to patients seeking the best care for elective surgeries. It’s also predictably drawing the ire of some in the medical profession. "The ProPublica database and data analysis have some significant flaws that undercut its ability to evaluate surgeons," said Eric Swensen, a public information officer for University of Virginia Health System. "Chief among these flaws is the use of billing data, not...
About 90 percent of those who graduated from Piedmont Virginia Community College’s nursing program last year found work, more than half of them at the University of Virginia Medical Center or Martha Jefferson Hospital. That’s about even with the trend line over the past five years — and it should continue to grow, said Kathy Hudson, dean of Health and Life Sciences at PVCC.
University of Virginia researchers are working to create small, wearable, self-powered monitors that can be linked to sensors on the body and that send alerts when things are amiss. Researcher John Lach, a professor and chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading the research at U.Va., which is part of a larger National Science Foundation-supported collaborative called Assist, based at North Carolina State University.
Ms. Clinton’s persona, noted prominent Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, “transcends any one place.” Part of that transcendence might be her lack of a strong regional accent—something that distinguished her from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Brooklyn native whose decades in Vermont have not dulled his Kings Highway inflections. “This might be a problem for some politicians, who sound like a New Yorker … She doesn’t,” said Larry Sabato, founder of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
On Wednesday, one of Puerto Rico’s government agencies failed to transfer a debt payment of $93.7 million to a trustee. Failure to make an additional payment on August 1st could constitute a default. Now, if this same scenario were happening in a state, that agency would probably restructure what they owe — just look at the city of Detroit last year. But Puerto Rican agencies can’t do that. Steven Walt, a bankruptcy law specialist at the University of Virginia Law School, says even if Puerto Rican agencies continue to miss payments, bond holders aren't in a...
Toddlers who spend a lot of time in front of a TV may be at greater risk of being bullied later in life, a new study suggests. Patrick Tolan, director of the Youth-Nex Center at the University of Virginia and a professor in UVA's Curry School of Education, put it this way: "It's impressive that you can see long-term effects of TV watching. But it's not clear whether TV watching is directly related to victimization, or to a lot of poor performance and poor functioning and victimization is just one aspect of that."
Pluto’s large moon Charon is almost as enigmatic as Pluto. As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft helps unveil the underworldly moon, most of its features are turning out to be more puzzling than expected. So far, scientists have no idea what’s going on with the Charonian peak. But, says team member Anne Verbiscer, it does look similar to a feature on another of the solar system’s most curious worlds: The two-toned moon Iapetus, which orbits Saturn. “I find both of them fascinating,” says Verbiscer, of the University of Virginia.
NASA says its New Horizons spacecraft will complete a historic flyby of Pluto today, making its closest pass over the small, icy world at 7:49 this morning. A UVA researcher is on the team assessing this first glimpse. Alan Howard is a planetary geologist with a front-row seat to history in the making.
Hampton Roads' members of Congress are digesting President Obama's new nuclear pact with Iran, and largely withholding final judgment while harboring worries about the long-negotiated treaty. They have two months to make up their minds, and the president has promised a hard sell between now and planned congressional votes. University of Virginia Professor Melvyn Leffler, who has written extensively about U.S. foreign relations with some focus on the Bush and Obama years, made the same point Thursday: This wasn't just about America's willingness to hold its own sanctions over Ir...
The case of the London Whale has ended — with a whimper. Last week, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority took the unusual step of announcing that it was dropping its investigation and would take no further action against Bruno Iksil, whose risky bets on complex derivative contracts ended up costing JPMorgan Chase $6.2 billion in losses. “It’s laughable, really, that so many banks have been prosecuted and it’s always the fault of a rogue trader, or an isolated trading desk,” said Brandon L. Garrett, a law professor at the University of Virginia and author of...
Being on the losing side of a revolution can be very dangerous for churches, according to Douglas Laycock, professor of law and religious studies at the University of Virginia. He argues that by continuing to fight on the losing side of the sexual revolution, churches endanger their religious liberty. He calls on churches to defend their religious liberty but not to try to impose their sexual values on others.
Apple is known for its strict curation of its App Store, but that's nothing compared to the labyrinth Shaun Masavage had to navigate to get his miniature breathalyzer DrinkMate approved by the company for use with the iPhone. Masavage has spent the last year working on an iPhone version of DrinkMate that could get Apple's approval, after successfully raising over $40,000 last year on Kickstarter to build an Android version. The Kickstarter for the iPhone version launched on Sunday and more than 500 backers have helped the University of Virginia alum pass i...
As features editor for Zimbabwe’s largest daily paper, The Herald, in the capital city of Harare, Roselyne Sachiti doesn’t shy away from tough stories, even if they place her in danger. The 33-year-old journalist has gone undercover to investigate the smuggling of clothes into her country, an episode that found her temporarily locked in a room in a smuggler’s house. She’s snuck across Zimbabwe’s border to report on the dangers facing women on such journeys, spotting evidence of violence and sexual assault along the way. This summer, Sachiti is in Charlottesville, ...
Private conversations last December between University of Virginia students and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine led to the Senate passing legislation Thursday that would spur high schools to teach students how to deal with sexual harassment or violence.
The University of Virginia has hired Alice J. Raucher as its new architect. Raucher — who currently heads the Design Steering Team for Yale University’s Office of Facilities, Planning, Construction and Renovation — is expected to start at UVa in September. She will replace current architect David J. Neuman, who announced last year he would leave his post to start a private practice in San Francisco. Neuman held his position for 11 years.