Such a chaotic field, and the nature and timing of special elections more generally, will likely obscure any broad lessons, experts said. “If we get a Democrat versus a Republican in what seems like an inevitable runoff, I do think it’ll be an interesting test of party strength in the usually Republican but Trump-skeptical suburbs,” Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said in an email. “I am not sure we’ll get such a runoff — there is a huge field of candidates, and we could see two members of the same party get through.”
Large donors also showed signs of favoring Republicans who voted to accept Biden’s victory, who on average took in about $150,000 from individuals giving more than $200. Republicans who voted to overturn Biden’s win on average raised about $100,000 from large donors. The gap could also suggest that House Republicans who voted to certify the 2020 election have a greater impetus to raise campaign donations because they are in more competitive districts or anticipate primary challenges. “A higher percentage of the people who voted to certify are in competitive districts,” said Kyle Kondik, an ana...
On March 1, the state of Virginia decriminalized jaywalking and reclassified it as a secondary offense — meaning people won’t be ticketed unless they’re violating another law. The change also reduces unnecessary interaction with the police. “As long as jaywalking was a primary offense, it was going to be a big source of harassment,” Peter Norton, associate professor of history in the University of Virginia’s Department of Engineering and Society, said.
The SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange intrusions came as schools, local governments, and businesses have faced cyberattacks of their own. “All these things are really putting a lot of pressure on [nations] to better secure their systems,” says Kristen Eichensehr, who directs the National Security Law Center at the UVA School of Law. She says there is also pressure on the “international legal system to respond to this felt impulse that these things are wrong, and that they should be dealt with as illegal.”
Barbara Armacost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said traffic laws are very extensive and can overcriminalize. “Once a person is stopped on the side of the road, police can seize any evidence that is in plain view inside of a car if police have probable cause to believe it is evidence of crime. They can also ask for consent to search the car, and they pretty much always get it,” Armacost said.
In February, two law professors who specialize in policing issues wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Biden could, via executive order, make federal law enforcement agencies a “a model for the rest of the nation” on transparency and accountability by collecting more data and making it available to the public. The professors, Barry Friedman of New York University School of Law and Rachel Harmon of the UVA School of Law, also called on the Biden administration to require local police agencies seeking federal money and equipment to get approval from their local legislature.
A variant is a mutation of a virus at the genetic level. As viruses spread, they change in order to gain a foothold, creating essentially a new branch on a family tree. There are thousands out there. The discussion about them recently is more limited to the few that have gained a foothold and are potentially dangerous. “This is evolution playing out in front of our eyes,” said Bryan Lewis, a research associate professor with UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute, which has done coronavirus analysis for over a year.
J&J’s reputation held up pretty well through its many years of bad publicity over everything from baby powder lawsuits to federal investigations and big settlements over its marketing of opioids and anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. Johnson & Johnson did fall from No. 13 on Fortune’s list of Most Admired Companies in 2017 to No. 26 in 2020. But the vaccine appeared to help it rebound to No. 15 on the 2021 list. Even the drop in the Fortune rankings was among a group of investors and senior executives queried by Korn Ferry, notes Kimberly Whittier, associate professor of business administr...
“When it comes to vaccines in particular, the bar for safety is very high because they’re giving it to presumably healthy people,” says Dr. Taison Bell, a critical care and infectious diseases physician and an assistant professor at the University of Virginia.
“Ultimately, the real carrot is watching vaccinated people get back to their normal lives over time,” said Vivian Riefberg, professor of practice at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, “and the real stick might unfortunately be with continued sickness and unnecessary death.”
Dr. Taison Bell, an assistant professor of medicine in UVA’s Division of Infectious Diseases, said it’s proof that problems with the vaccine are extremely rare. “Your risk of dying from COVID-19 is higher than your risk of having an adverse reaction to the vaccine,” Bell said. “Some of the things that we do in the regular course of living, like getting in a car and crossing the street, are things that are going to represent higher risk.”
Barie Carmichael lost her sense of taste and smell while traveling in Europe. She remembers keeping a dinner date at a Michelin-starred restaurant but tasting nothing. It may sound like a case of COVID-19. But Carmichael, 72, a fellow at the University of Virginia’s business school, lost her ability to taste and smell for three years in the 1990s. The only respiratory infection she’d had was bronchitis.
When Hank Banner first stepped between the lines of the baseball field at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in 1988, he couldn’t have imagined what the next 30 plus years would have in store for him. “I played here and then was able to be an assistant here,” said Banner. “I just fell in love with the school and some of the values we stood for.”
Matthew McLendon, the director and chief curator of the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, offered his thoughts on the new Netflix limited series “This is a Robbery: The World’s Greatest Art Heist.”
On Friday, UVA Health finalized an agreement to acquire a stand-alone outpatient surgery center. UVA Health is taking over the Monticello Community Surgery Center, which is located next to the UVA Primary Care Riverside along Route 29.
(Commentary) Recidivism – the chance a criminal is going to reoffend – is reduced by 43% in the year after an individual submits their DNA, according to UVA professor Jennifer Doleac’s 2017 study, “The effects of DNA databases on the deterrence and detention of offenders.” The OCDA DNA program protects the public, prevents additional victimization, and provides individuals with a path out of the criminal justice system.
(Commentary) New UVA research suggests that people often overlook the option of getting rid of elements in favor of adding new ones, even when the simpler solution is superior. Behavioral scientists are making the case that a “subtractive” approach could be useful in tackling global problems like the climate crisis.
According to UVA’s COVID-19 model, three health districts – Mount Rogers in Southwest Virginia, Rappahannock Rapidan in the northwestern part of the state, and Alexandria – are currently seeing a surge in COVID cases, defined as “sustained rapid growth and exceeds recent inflection points.” Districts experiencing slow growth include: Eastern Shore, Henrico County, Lenowisco, Loudoun County, Lord Fairfax, Norfolk, Prince William County, Rappahannock, Richmond and Western Tidewater.
The Brazil variant joins others originating in the United Kingdom, California and South Africa already confirmed in Virginia. Researchers at the University of Virginia believe the U.K. variant, the one that’s been most-studied, has become dominant in the commonwealth, meaning a majority of new infections happening are because of it. “Viruses change all the time, and VDH expects to see new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as disease spreads,” officials wrote in Friday’s release.
A Friday update from UVA’s Biocomplexity Institute, which tracks COVID-19 trends, projected a summer peak by the Fourth of July weekend if precautions such as social distancing and wearing masks aren’t taken.