Post from Dean Gilliam: Maciek Kolodziejczak and I met with a delegation from the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan to discuss possible collaborations and student exchanges.

Drug policy expert Mark Kleiman spoke to Newsweek about the legal possibilities and implications behind Proposition 19 on California's November ballot.

The Atlantic recently scrutinized the possibility of having "Prisons Without Walls" as an alternative to incarceration.

With continued demands for extended railways through Europe, the Swiss have completed the construction of the longest transport tunnel in the world. Known as the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the underground rail project has taken 14 years of digging through 2,500+ meters of rock. The tunnel serves to create a transport network in Europe to facilitate goods through high-speed passenger and freight trains.

By Daniel J.B. Mitchell

Public Policy Professor Mark Kleiman spoke with Larry Mantle on KPCC's Air Talk regarding a new report by the FBI. The report claims a five percent reduction in crime and follows a general reduction of crime since the 1994. Kleiman discussed that:

There's half as much crime as there was in 1994. Now every time crime goes down, it becomes a lesser deal for criminals because they are doing fewer prison days per crime committed.

A recent traffic jam in China has halted commuters along the Beijing-Tibet highway for over nine days. This 62-mile (100km) stretch is currently gridlocked with little-to-no relief in sight. According to Chinese authorities, the culprit is construction along this main highway, along with a high volume of overloaded trucks.

In UCLA News Week: Dean Gilliam discusses the role of race, Shirley Sherrod and the Obama Administration.

On the 40th anniversary of the successful grape boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, UCLA urban planning alumnus Alvaro Huerta looks at the event in the context of today’s labor laws and working conditions.  In a piece published in The Progessive, Huerta writes:

Interview everyone living on these streets. Find out how long they've been homeless.