Newsroom Stories

“The House leadership’s procedural excuses for blocking a vote on critical immigration reform make little sense,” says Stephen Legomsky, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the recent Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. In that position he worked intensively with White House and DHS officials and played a major role on comprehensive immigration reform. “It’s now been 7 months since the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Speaker Boehner should allow the people’s elected representatives in the House to consider it without further delay,” Legomsky argues.

Bradley L. Schlaggar, MD, PhD, the A. Ernest and Jane G. Stein Professor of Neurology, has been named director of the Division of Pediatric and Developmental Neurology.

William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and vice provost for graduate education. He will succeed Richard Smith, PhD, who steps down July 1.

Ruthe Foster sings like a force of nature. Eric Bibb, with his warm baritone and sparkling, effortless guitar, can seem like the happiest bluesman around. On Saturday, Feb. 15, these two Grammy-nominated blues artists will say “Thanks for the Joy” as part of the Edison Ovations Series.

Scientists have decoded the genome of an intestinal parasite that causes hookworm, an illness that afflicts an estimated 700 million of the world’s poor. The parasitic worm lives in the soil and enters the body through the feet. By feeding on victims’ blood, the worms cause anemia and, in children, stunted growth and learning problems.

Washington University in St. Louis has named Vanessa Walby as its new volleyball coach, Athletics Director John Schael announced. Walby comes to WUSTL after a six-year stint as the volleyball coach at the University of Chicago.

Washington University expects to have more than 29,000 applications for the class that will enter in August and admitted more than 630 students in the early decision round (a little more than 35 percent of the expected freshman class). While the total number of applications received is down slightly this year, the Admissions Office reports another strong and talented group of applicants.

Federal appellate judge Bernice Donald, JD, president of the American Bar Foundation, and Thomas Saenz, JD, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, will be the next speakers for the 16th annual School of Law Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series.

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Jan. 15 directing agencies to allow federal workers to take six weeks of paid sick leave to help with a new child or a sick relative. The president also asked Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act, which would grant Americans seven days a year of paid sick time. Augmenting the Family and Medical Leave Act is one place Congress might start if it wants to combat sex-role stereotypes and advance women’s equal employment opportunity, as well as supporting families in times of illness, say experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

The AIDS Clinical Trials Site at the School of Medicine has been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant that supports testing of treatments for HIV, AIDS and the many complications they cause. Pictured is the principal investigator, David Clifford, MD.