In The News

Four women from the University of Virginia appeared with their coach Thursday to talk about winning three silver medals and one bronze in Tokyo.  

They’ve come from all corners of Connor Jones’ life: friends, his parents’ friends, people from his old neighborhood, former coaches and children he’s instructed in the finer points of pitching. Coming home has its advantages, and not just at the ballpark. Jones, a former Great Bridge High and University of Virginia star now pitching for the Memphis Redbirds, has spent the week staying at his Virginia Beach home and welcoming familiar faces to Harbor Park as his team has faced the Norfolk Tides.

(Commentary by Elyse Sheppard, Class of 2020) My father has given me tons of advice over the years, but one message will always stand out. On the Greek island of Poros, my father stopped me and, trying to signify the importance of his message, gave me what he called his “one piece of advice”: don’t be so high-strung that you miss the serendipitous moments of life.

[UVA alumnus] Scott MacLeod was never an Apollo astronaut, but he did play one on TV. If you were among the millions who tuned in for CBS’s live coverage of NASA’s moon missions from 1969 through 1972, you no doubt saw MacLeod, clad in a spacesuit and standing inside a lunar module simulator to provide Walter Cronkite with play-by-play descriptions of every move the real astronauts were making.

[UVA Darden School of Business alumnus] Mark McLaughlin and Arch Watkins are both naval aviation veterans. McLaughlin has a background in business and finance, while Watkins is a trained engineer. Separately, those are valuable skills in today’s workforce. Together, it meant a booming distilling business.

What the Boston Celtics saw in Sam Hauser was pretty apparent Thursday night. In a blowout win over the Orlando Magic, the rookie was on fire from deep, leading Boston with 21 points, seven assists and six 3-pointers in 26 minutes on the court. The performance made it easy to see why the team signed the University of Virginia product to a two-way deal, officially announced Friday, amid questions about his defense and upside. But because Hauser went undrafted, there was some competition.

The Los Angeles Rams lost their preseason debut to the Los Angeles Chargers 13-6 but there were a ton of bright spots to take from the game. One such highlight was second-year quarterback Bryce Perkins out of the University of Virginia and it will be interesting to see how the Rams handle his development and whether or not they’ll be able to keep him through final cuts and waiver pickups.

University of Virginia students are coming back and looking for some sense of normalcy. Students living on the Lawn started their move-in process Friday.

Today, Jaykumar Vaidya is a scientist pursuing his Ph.D. at University of Virginia. However, his journey began from an 8X10 in the Kurla slum of Mumbai.

To sort through all the political implications of the new census data, Yahoo News spoke to Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan election forecasting newsletter published by the UVA Center for Politics, and author of the forthcoming book “The Long Red Thread: How Democratic Dominance Gave Way to Republican Advantage in US House Elections.” Kondik’s big-picture read of the results? “They were different [from expectations] in ways that you could argue were a little bit better for Democrats than Republicans,” he explained. “But the Republicans do still have some sig...

Because of the explosive growth of metro areas in states such as Texas and Georgia, suburban congressional districts that Republicans can win in the near term might not remain winnable for long. “One of the things that map drawers in places like Texas or Georgia have to be wary of is spreading themselves too thin in an effort to grab a maximal number of seats in 2022,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “Maybe you win some extra seats in 2022, but you can’t hold them in the future, and the maps unravel.”

“In a state like Virginia, the places that are growing are generally more Democratic or toss-ups, and those shrinking lean toward the GOP. That explains what has happened politically in Virginia over the last several decades,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the UVA Center for Politics.

“I don’t think these various infrastructure bills have animated the electorate the way that, for instance, recent battles over health care have,” said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of election forecaster Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the UVA Center for Politics. “It’s possible that none of this will really have a major impact on the campaign next year,” he said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the man described by UVA political analyst Larry Sabato as “smarter than Trump, and a bit more careful and coldly calculating,” seems unwilling to change course. If his tough-sounding declarations are more than a little reminiscent of former president Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric from the White House, it is no coincidence.

First impressions are critical in job applications. Requesting special role privileges, including a remote work setup, right out of the gate can make you look selfish, said Jim Detert, a professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business. “When you’re early in the hiring process, you’re still a pretty indistinguishable applicant,” Detert said. “But the more you interact with a potential employer, the warmer their perception of you will become, and the more open they’ll be to your requests.” 

Lunula that have a blueish tint could suggest Wilson’s disease, a rare inherited genetic disorder in which copper accumulates in the liver, brain and other organs. Red lunula may indicate heart failure, research shows. And in patients with severe kidney disease, it’s not uncommon to see half-and-half nails, where the white from the lunula extends halfway up the nail bed, and the other half of the nail is darker in color, says Dr. Richard H. Flowers, assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Virginia.

Television reflects and reinforces the importance of wealth, said Jim Burroughs, a professor who leads a master’s program in global commerce at the University of Virginia and studies materialism. “People would be materialistic without TV,” he said -- noting that France’s extravagant Palace of Versailles predates TV and film. But watching so much content about the lives of the rich influences the value we place on material things and personal wealth, he said. “We might initially be attracted to television because of the affluence it depicts, but then viewing this most definitely reinforces the ...

A decade ago, the school board decided to close three struggling middle schools in predominantly black West Charlotte and send their students to eight new K-8s. In an effort to sell the plan, supporters pointed to research on the benefits of the K-8 configuration. The new model, they argued, could raise achievement at the poorly performing West Charlotte schools. Denise Watts, who was a top administrator for the district at the time and now works for UVA advising districts on school reform, believes the board picked the West Charlotte schools for a K-8 experiment over others on its initial lis...

J. Corey Feist, CEO of the UVA Physicians Group and the co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, pointed to a host of recent data about physician distress – that physicians and nurses die by suicide at two times the rate of the general population, for instance – as another sign that the focus on HCP well-being is long overdue.

A member of the UVA community is getting some high honors. Senior Assistant Attorney General and University Counsel Timothy J. Heaphy was just appointed to serve a new position, away from the University. Heaphy will serve as chief investigative counsel for the Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.