By Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl, an assistant professor of politicsLast week’s votes in Congress brought the Obama administration one step closer to taking military action in Syria as part of its new strategy for confronting the Islamic State (formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS). American failure to take early, decisive action to prevent a power vacuum in Syria was a significant factor in the rise of ISIS. Such action could have been taken far earlier. One of the main sources of U.S. reluctance to do so has been the fragmentation and radicalization of the armed Syrian o...
[With video] The University of Virginia and Thomas Nelson Community College have partnered to expand U.Va.'s "Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies" program to the Historic Triangle Campus.
While genetic modification may involve replacing or changing individual genes within an organism, synthetic biology involves far more extensive changes such as completely re-engineering the genomes of microorganisms to create “designer” proteins or engineer viruses to attack bacteria harmful to humans.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe has named 30 people — including victims, advocates, student leaders, college administrators, forensic nurses and police — to serve on a task force to combat sexual assault on campus. Three task force members are from the Charlottesville area are:» Maggie Cullinan, director of Charlottesville Victim/Witness Assistance Program;» Allen W. Groves, dean of students at University of Virginia; and» Emily Renda, program coordinator in Student Affairs at UVa.
Three Oklahoma school districts have seen huge improvements on their annual report cards. ... After getting their first report cards two years ago, Anadarko school leaders knew change needed to happen.They were invited, along with El Reno and Guthrie, to participate in an education leadership program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Curry School of Education. The program is a boot camp for teachers and administrators.
In a second search of the home of the man believed to be the last person seen with a missing University of Virginia student, officials said they took pieces of clothing, but they would not elaborate on the importance of the items Tuesday.The clothing was found Monday at Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr.'s apartment, Charlottesville Police Capt. Gary Pleasants told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.... Police have said they hope to receive lab results late Tuesday from items recovered during the initial searches, and authorities are still trying to locate the campus employee to arrest him...
The hunt for the man police say was the last person seen with a missing University of Virginia student escalated Monday as investigators awaited a forensic analysis of objects taken from his home and car.
Police say the person of interest in the disappearance of Hannah Graham may no longer be in the Charlottesville area. ...We do know digital billboards have gone up across the state in 12 cities including Richmond, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell. Police are also circulating wanted posters of Matthew in an effort to expand the search for the man last seen with Hannah.... We are learning Matthew and Graham were likely complete strangers before meeting on the downtown mall."You don't think they knew each other beforehand?" we asked Chief Longo."No sir," replied Chief Longo....
...Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s Mark Eggeman said nearly 2,000 people searched for clues into Graham’s disappearance. Eggeman said he spent his daughter’s birthday with searchers, saying, “No place I’d rather be.”
Jesse Matthew, who’s wanted for questioning in connection with the disappearance of UVA student Hannah Graham, is still missing, and he’s become the subject of considerable talk in the town where he grew up. Police say he has no record of violent crime, but reporter Hawes Spencer has been asking around and has come up with some intriguing information. We talked with Spencer about one particular incident.
More than 1,500 people spent the weekend searching for missing UVA student Hannah Graham. We spoke with Keegan Thomas, Gary Grant, Roger Hall, Jerry Haskins, Leighton Brown, Sue Harris, Allie and Alex Merrill, Professor Joe Garofalo, Megan Earl and Colleen O'Connor.
...Mixed opinions on police tacticsTheir decision to charge Matthew with reckless driving and put his face on a wanted poster has struck debate among many people.“It’s gonna be hard for him to get jobs and it’s not like he’s been prosecuted or they have evidence on this guy yet,” said Maderio Vanable.Vanable questioned if the law enforcement’s aggressive pursuit of Matthew is the right approach.
When asked about the damage to Matthew's 1998 Chrysler Coupe she explained that he showed up with a damaged car when he moved in a year ago.
We traveled along with Virginia Department of Emergency Management's Mark Eggeman on the search as he briefed the teams and then lead them to Stribling Avenue Extended in Charlottesville. Two canine units search the heavily wooded area while three elite search and rescue teams also waded through the thicket.
According to public records, Matthew was involved in 22 incidents between 1999 and 2007, the majority of which were related to some kind of traffic violations ranging from failure to wear a seatbelt to failure to yield or obey stop signs. He was found guilty in six of those incidents, guilty in absentia in nine cases, prepaid dismissal in five, not guilty or acquitted in one and an undetermined verdict in another.
Charlottesville Police say they have received a total of 1,400 tips in the investigation into Hannah Graham's disappearance, and 300 of those tips came on Monday alone.Searchers spent part of Monday searching the area around Jefferson Park Avenue and Stribling Avenue, but found no significant clues.Meanwhile, Graham's disappearance is causing some University of Virginia students to change their habits.
... Edwin T. Burton III, a former VRS board member and an economics professor at the University of Virginia, said the VRS board has “fallen in love” with complicated investments that require high-paid experts. But he said a simpler plan without fees that basically fell and rose with the stock market would have seen a better return on investment and allowed more money to go into the market instead of into investors’ pockets. Burton has advocated a 70-30 split in stocks and bonds indexed against the market.
Over half of all births to young adults in the United States now occur outside of marriage, and many of those are unplanned. Too often, the result is increased poverty for many children. Some argue for a return to traditional marriage. Others say we need more social support for unmarried parents. Family policy expert Isabel Sawhill offers a third option which involves what she calls childbearing by design, not by default. Diane and her guests discuss the impact of family structure on child well-being.Guests: Bradford Wilcox, director, the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia...
...A key reason, said University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox, is that a greater proportion of older adults come from large families, born into an era when big families were the norm in American life – and research shows that having lots of siblings correlates with a lower statistical likelihood of divorce.“In terms of some social outcomes, kids from large families are more likely to flourish,” said Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project. “They’re less likely to get divorced. It might be the experience early in life of learning to share so much a...
The search for a University of Virginia student who has been missing for more than a week was streamlined Monday in an effort to focus on possible leads, according to officials. More than 1,200 people combed the streets of Charlottesville on Saturday and Sunday for clothes, a cellphone or anything that might lead to the whereabouts of 18-year-old Hannah Graham, who vanished on Sept. 13. ...Rather that hundreds of community members scouring backyards and looking behind bushes, the coming days instead will see smaller groups of trained search and rescue crews using leads from the investigation t...