miscellaneous

From the Daily Bruin: On April 26, Chick-fil-A – an Atlanta-based company at the center of a controversy because of its president’s recent expression of his views on same-sex marriage – signed a lease to move into the space where Burger King is currently located, said Steve Ritea, a UCLA spokesman. The restaurant is projected to open at 900 Westwood Blvd. next March. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the previous owners of the Westwood Plaza building where Burger King is currently housed, signed the lease with Chick-fil-A. In June, UCLA completed the purchase of the 10-story office building for $72 million and inherited the lease,…

No, not with athletes.  But in case you missed it, here is an excerpt from a story in UCLA Today: Highly regarded lab ensures that Olympic athletes are ‘clean’ Anthony Butch is not an athlete or coach, but he and his team had to undergo their own kind of Olympic time trials before the Games opened in London.  Just a few weeks ago, Butch and his staff at UCLA’s Olympic Analytical Laboratory were working furiously to process hundreds of urine samples from members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. The testing had to be done quickly, since a positive result…

From the Westwood-Century City Patch: Westwood’s Avco Center movie theater, which has been advertising a “new and exciting movie going experience” since it closed in December, will become a luxury six-screen movie theater with a full service restaurant and bar by early 2013. …iPic Theaters, based in Florida, announced a signed lease on Avco Center (10840 Wilshire Boulevard). …From their plush reclining seats, guests can summon “ninja-like servers” who deliver cocktails and meals during the movie. The theater will also have a full-service Italian restaurant called Tanzy, led by chef Andre Lane; cured meats, breads and mozzarellas at Parma Bar;…

Here is a cheery Twitter account you can follow which features notes and photos of failed businesses and empty stores in Westwood, just south of campus.  (It does note new business openings as well.)https://twitter.com/westwoodisdying

The LA Times carries an article today on a new solar film being developed at UCLA: (excerpt) One of the holy grails of solar cell technology may have been found, with researchers at UCLA announcing they have created a new organic polymer that produces electricity, is nearly transparent and is more durable and malleable than silicon. The applications are mind-boggling. Windows that produce electricity. Buildings wrapped in transparent solar cells. Laptops and phones – or even cars or planes – whose outer coverings act as chargers. It might even be sprayed on as a liquid. The promise of cheap and easy-to-apply site-generated…

UCLA student identified as “campus sweetheart” in 1930 photo in LAPL collection.

California has its budget trigger cuts about which we have written on this blog.  At the federal level, you will be hearing more as time goes by about “sequestration,” a kind of trigger cut mechanism Congress created to give it an incentive to enact a “grand bargain” on federal spending and the federal deficit.  Basically, if no such bargain is reached, massive defense and non-defense cuts go into effect on January 2.  The idea was that the thought of such cuts would be so frightful that Congress would concoct a grand bargain instead.  It hasn’t worked so far.  (But these…