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(Commentary) “I resent when people present themselves as saints and others as sinners,” said UVA politics analyst Larry Sabato, adding that voters should be suspicious of economic power because sooner or later it is leveraged for favors only elective officials can deliver.

Many of the House Republicans who spoke on Thursday took pains to deny that their opposition to D.C. statehood was at all rooted in fear of admitting a state with a majority Black population. Instead, they chose to stick to arguments about how D.C. statehood would be a “Democrat power grab”.  But a veteran observer of both D.C.-area and national politics – UVA Center for Politics founder Larry Sabato – said that those members “doth protest too much” when asked about such protestations on Thursday. “Anybody who would assume that race has dissipated as a factor in their evaluation of this b...

(Commentary) Barbara A. Perry, director of presidential studies at �鶹�ƽ�� Miller Center, said that Congress and the people regarded FDR’s plan to pack the court as “an undemocratic power grab.” Let us hope the same is true today, but we can’t count out future efforts to normalize this radical idea.  

(Commentary) In fact, shame is rife on campuses in the United States and elsewhere. Mark Edmundson, a veteran English professor at the University of Virginia, describes a “culture of hip,” in which “passion and strong admiration,” particularly for what one encounters in school, must be suppressed if they arise and hidden if they can’t be suppressed. If other students roll their eyes at the nerd who responds enthusiastically to a professor’s plea to dig into Dante, it isn’t necessarily because they resent her intelligence. They may be just as clever as she is. The nerd’s offense, of which she i...

China’s ascent over the U.S. had been widely anticipated. The Chinese film industry reached an “inflection point” around 2016, when its technology and storytelling skills became as competitive as those of Hollywood, says Aynne Kokas, a Chinese cinema expert at the University of Virginia.

What Netflix also has is scads of data on the habits of its 207 million subscribers, which gives it a competitive advantage in the crowded streaming universe, notes UVA professor Aswin Punathambekar. "That allows the company to understand viewership patterns beyond the usual demographic factors," Punathambekar said. "This does shape decisions about the kinds of series to commission or add to the library," he said.

(Transcript) KAHN: The country is not capable of holding credible elections anytime soon, says political science professor at the University of Virginia, Robert Fatton. ROBERT FATTON: The idea of having elections at this time, you know, is absolutely crazy. You can't have elections given the conditions in Haiti. 

Richard Bonnie, a UVA law professor, said the case “signals clearly that the new conservative majority of the Supreme Court will not expand the reach of the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment decisions barring harsh sentences for juveniles.”  

The decision signals that the high court's new conservative majority will not expand the reach of the court's Eighth Amendment decisions concerning sentences for juveniles, according to professor Richard Bonnie of the UVA School of Law. "The only hopeful sign for those who support those decisions is that Justice Kavanaugh's opinion for the court did somersaults to avoid saying that it was overruling any of the court's previous decisions," he said.

Moderna arm, aka COVID arm, is an itchy, raised, red rash circling the injection site. Dr. Richard “Hal” Flowers, a UVA assistant professor of dermatology, said the arm rashes are the most commonly reported skin reaction. They fade away after a few days, though it’s not quite clear what’s triggering them.

"COVID deaths are deaths that can be prevented by a simple vaccination, so it's really to your benefit and the entire community’s benefit to get vaccinated and to do so now," said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology at UVA Health.  

(Commentary co-written by John Morton Moore, professor emeritus of law) Greater pandemic preparedness will require improvements in infrastructure, early warning, testing, contact tracing, enhanced communication, and international cooperation, as detailed by a recent independent task force report of the Council on Foreign Relations. But simply doing better in these defensive areas of pandemic response is not sufficient for the level of threat we face.

(Commentary by Kyle Kondik, UVA Center for Politics) The Hundred Days’ mark has become a popular time to take the measure of a new president. We’re a little early – as we’re writing this on Wednesday afternoon, April 21, Biden is at his 92nd day in office – but we thought this would be a good time to check in on how the public views Biden so far and how he compares to past presidents.

(Commentary by Nicholas Sargen, lecturer at the Darden School of Business) One of the Biden administration’s top priorities is to tackle income inequality in the United States. It stems from a widely held view that the gap between rich and poor has widened steadily since the 1980s when the Reagan administration cut the highest marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%. To address this issue, President Biden is proposing tax increases for corporations and households with annual income of more than $400,000. But is this perception accurate?

(Commentary by Chad Wellmon, professor of German studies and history) What must one believe in to be willing to borrow tens of thousands of dollars in order to pursue a certification of completion – a B.A.? What would a college have to promise in order to compel someone to do that? What would a bank have to believe to extend this person credit? Or the U.S. government, to guarantee such loans en masse – now roughly $2 trillion? And what would a society have to believe to sustain the system that keeps it all going?

The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia is doing its part to follow COVID-19 restrictions. People are able to see its exhibits, but are required to have reservation, as well as limit groups to no more than eight people.

According to UVA Health, around 60% of people in Charlottesville and Albemarle County eligible for vaccination have gotten their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about 40% are fully vaccinated.

New research suggests that selling isn’t just hard to think about; most of the time, many investors might not think about it at all. In an article published this month in the journal Nature, behavioral scientists at UVA showed that when trying to improve a situation, people don’t even consider subtracting from it. Their default solution is to try adding something instead.

(Commentary) Shirley’s email arrived at the perfect time as I had just finished reading “Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work,” by professor Jim Detert, who teaches leadership and organizational behavior at �鶹�ƽ�� Darden School of Business. If ever in our country’s history there was a time for this book, then it is now. We have seen fear in the highest places of business and government – fear to speak up – becoming its own pandemic.

A UVA scientist is working on a way to treat Alzheimer’s disease thanks to funding from the Alzheimer’s Association. John Lukens received a 2021 research grant to help identify new molecular pathways that can be targeted to treat the disease.