“University of California” on The Daily Caller

LOS ANGELES – Lindsay Lohan got an early ticket out of rehab Tuesday night – three weeks into a court-ordered program expected to last three months. (more)

On Monday, TheDC began releasing its Ranking of America’s 50 Best Colleges, starting with 50 – 41. We also laid out the methodology behind our list and the reasons why our college ranking is uniquely definitive. (more)

There’s good news for parents who worry that their teenagers’ sex lives are affecting their school performance: A provocative new study has found that teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don’t have sex. (more)

The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan last week, making her President Barack Obama’s second Supreme Court nominee to reach the bench. (more)

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama is looking at candidates to fill a top White House economic post with no announcement expected this week, spokesman Bill Burton said on Monday. (more)

Wall Street’s banditry was the proximate cause of the Great Recession, not its underlying cause. Even if the Street is better controlled in the future (and I have my doubts), the structural reason for the Great Recession still haunts America. That reason is America’s surging inequality. (more)

The limitations imposed by the role of the states in the U.S. unemployment insurance system are the reason why a majority of workers are not protected and why even insured workers receive inadequate protection. Steven Attewell writes: “Our reconstruction of the unemployment insurance system should start from three basic principles. First, unemployment is a national problem for our single, national economy, and requires a nation-wide system to respond to it. Second, in order to protect the entire workforce from the sudden shock of wage loss and the economy from the sudden shock of consumer spending collapse, all workers need to be inside the system, contributing and protected. Third, unemployment benefits should be set at a sufficient level to keep individuals and families from falling into poverty and should be automatically extended in periods of economic decline in job losses, when normal expectations that people can find new jobs no longer apply.” (more)

The movement to legalize gay marriage has gained significant momentum in recent years. Seven states have legalized same-sex marriage since 2004, and the percentage of Americans who answer “yes” when asked if they support gay marriage has risen dramatically since pollsters first began regularly asking the question fourteen years ago. Conservatives, however, remain staunchly opposed to the practice, which many fear will undermine conservative values and principles. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted last year, 80 percent of self-described conservatives oppose legalizing gay marriage — compared to only 23 percent of self-described liberals and only 46 percent of self-described moderates. (more)

While the federal deficit captures the news headlines, there is a deep and pervasive fiscal crisis in state finance. This crisis is largely a result of the Great Recession, which has caused the steepest decline in state tax receipts on record. It is also a structural issue, resulting from unfunded retirement plans that are beginning to come due. With state spending accounting for one eighth of US GDP, this crisis has serious implications for economic recovery, for jobs and for the credit markets, where states and municipalities have borrowed nearly $3 trillion. This paper reviews the origins and the scale of the state fiscal crisis. It considers its impact on economic growth and fiscal stability. And it lays out some recommended policy actions that are needed in order to address these issues and help put state finances on a sounder, more sustainable footing. (more)

Starting this month, colleges and universities that don’t do enough to combat the illegal swapping of “Avatar” or Lady Gaga over their computer networks put themselves at risk of losing federal funding. (more)

Germany’s publicly-funded international broadcaster Deutsche Welle held its third annual “Global Media Forum” last week in Bonn. According to the conference website, this year’s event drew some 1500 participants from 95 countries. The topic: “The Heat is On: Climate Change and the Media.” (more)

UC Irvine officials have recommended the suspension of the university’s Muslim student group whose members disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador earlier this year, heightening a debate about free speech that has roiled the campus. (more)

More than 12,000 nurses in California are set to hold a one-day walkout Thursday, taking part in what could be the largest registered nursing strike in the country’s history. (more)

The discovery of anti-infective agents such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, and antibacterials in the 1930s and 1940s represents a transformative moment in human history. They have made an invaluable contribution to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Since their introduction, anti-infectives have revolutionized healthcare and saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, over time, bacterium inevitably develops resistance to existing drugs, making infections difficult if not impossible to treat. (more)

For once, the rumors about Mark Twain are true. (more)

UC Berkeley is adding something a little different this year in its welcome package — cotton swabs for a DNA sample. (more)

Livermore, California (CNN) — Scientists at a government lab here are trying to use the world’s largest laser — it’s the size of three football fields — to set off a nuclear reaction so intense that it will make a star bloom on the surface of the Earth. (more)

On April 5, there was an explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia; 29 lives were lost. Fifteen days later, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico; 11 lives were lost. These two human and environmental tragedies share more than just the month of April. They both, sadly, provide important headlines that pull back the curtain on the extent of our national energy appetite. And they should be a stark wake-up call for the large numbers among us who take for granted our access to reliable and affordable energy as to the complexity of our nation’s energy DNA. (more)

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court struggled Monday with whether a state-run law school may refuse to recognize a religious student group that excludes gay students and non-Christians. (more)

California’s high school seniors faced slightly tougher odds to gain admission to the University of California this year and more than 10,700 of them were offered a spot, sometimes several, on the university’s new and controversial waiting lists, according to statistics released Wednesday. (more)