"To have a solid self-defense theory, you either have to have already suffered an armed attack by the people you are targeting, or you have to think that they pose an imminent threat of armed attack," says Ashley Deeks, a former State Department lawyer who now teaches at the University of Virginia.
Although the subculture has been fueled by social media, it is not entirely a product of the 21st century. “Photography and testosterone have gone together for a very long time,” said John Edwin Mason, an associate history professor at the University of Virginia who studies the history of photography. Mason sees precedents for today’s daredevil photography subculture in the 19th-century exploration of the American West, when “you would find photographers going to extraordinary lengths to get their big heavy equipment over mountain tops and cliff faces.”
Dr. Marcus Martin and historian Kirt von Daacke are the co-chairs of the University of Virginia’s President’s Commission on Slavery and the University – an exciting and historic effort on the part of U.Va. to embrace the challenge of exploring, teaching and reflecting on the history of slavery at the University.
Surveying the tools available to the federal government to stimulate police reform, Rachel Harmon, a University of Virginia law professor wrote gloomily in the Saint Louis University Public Law Review: “Federal remedies for misconduct will never prevent bad policing much more than they do now.”
(Editorial) If this dispute was really about economic development, those answers should have been forthcoming. It’s easy to see why outside experts scoffed at Lindgren’s assurances that this is simply about the city’s exercising its right to protect industrial space. “The city’s stated reason is nonsense; no one is going to put an industrial operation in the basement of an office building. They would rather have the basement sit empty and unused than let Muslims in,’’ said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia School of Law professor and leading au...
Gregory Houston Holt is an Arkansas prison inmate who is also known as Abdul Maalik Muhammad. According to his brief to the court, he feels his Muslim faith requires him to follow this dictate: “Allah’s Messenger said, ‘Cut the moustaches short and leave the beard (as it is).’ ” Holt said he is willing to compromise with prison officials and keep his beard trimmed to one-half inch. But Arkansas corrections officials allow beards only for dermatological conditions – not religious beliefs – and even then they must be trimmed to one-quarter inch. He is re...
"They have one training day a year, which is mostly spent drinking rather than drilling," University of Virginia historian Alan Taylor, author of two books that deal with the War of 1812, says of the militiamen. "Whoever was elected captain would take them down to the local tavern and they'd get blasted."
"There is little doubt that this is a politically charged affair," said Robert Fatton, a longtime Haiti expert and University of Virginia political science professor. "At a time when the Martelly administration is engaged in acrimonious negotiations with the opposition and the Senate over long overdue elections, the indictment is likely to polarize further an already tense situation."
In “Readings in Medieval Poetry,” University of Virginia English Professor AC Spearing describes the post-Romantic poet as “burdened with the obligation of an impossible originality.”
“Whatever the jury’s verdict, the trial itself has sent a powerful message to public officials, not just in Virginia but across the nation, that ethical lapses can have serious consequences,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Republicans need to gain six Senate seats now held by Democrats to gain a majority without losing any of the seats they currently held. University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato reports that Republicans are likely to gain six to seven seats in November, just enough to claim a majority. He and others also predict modest gains for Republicans in the House of Representatives, where they already have a sizable majority.
“The breaks this year – strong candidates, avoidance of damaging gaffes, issues such as Obamacare and immigration that stir the party base – have mainly gone the GOP’s way,” said a late August analysis by Larry Sabato, at the University of Virginia. But, he warned, “in every single one of the Crystal Ball’s toss-up states, (Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana and North Carolina), the Republican Senate candidate has not yet opened up a real polling lead in any of them,” he wrote.
Obama's job approval ratings slipped to 43 percent in August, while 51 percent disapproved of his performance, as the upheavals in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine took their toll on the commander-in-chief. "Some Democrats will very much benefit from not appearing with him,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"Politicians are good at putting on their game face," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, adding that Perry appears to believe he's got a strong case. But Perry needs more than that. "If he were to be found guilty, he's facing serious jail time, so you don't take any chances in those circumstances, and he clearly is not," Sabato said. "Everything is riding on it. Not just his presidential candidacy but his freedom." 
University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said it’s not only a reversal from past midterms, but also the opposite of almost all other races in the country this year. “That has got to be of great concern to the Walker camp,” Sabato said. “(If) Burke pulls an upset, it’s going to be all of Walker’s chickens coming home to roost on one night.”
“He’s the underdog against the incumbent, but not by an insurmountable margin,” said Larry Sabato, the veteran political scientist at the University of Virginia. “Georgia is in transition. It has been solidly Republican since the 1960s – and heavily so – but the Republican edge shrinks a bit with each passing election.”
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, predicted a pickup by Republicans of six-to-seven seats as the "likeliest" outcome. Republicans would need to gain six seats to obtain a majority in the Senate.
Nevertheless, this is not turning into the Republican-red year some certainly had reason to believe it would be, write Larry Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley in the University of Virginia's Crystal Ball political newsletter and Politico. "So where's the wave?" they ask.
Despite President Barack Obama’s low approval ratings, Republicans are still struggling to move ahead of Democrats to reclaim the Senate in November’s midterm elections. In a piece authored by Larry Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley for Politico this week, the authors state that Republican Senate candidates in toss-up states of Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana and North Carolina have yet to open up a real polling lead, and the summer is coming to a close to pull away.
Despite a highly touted class of challengers, though, Republicans have struggled in a number of other conservative states, leaving the fate of the Senate to be fought out over the next two months in North Carolina, Louisiana, Alaska and Arkansas, as well as in several progressive states. “Republicans remain slight favorites to net the six seats they need to win the Senate,” said Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.