April 29, 2005

Carolina in the News

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:

National Coverage

Airbus Giant Will Stretch Many Airports' Ingenuity
The New York Times
Now that the Airbus A380 has taken to the skies on its first test flight, this giant bird needs someplace to land. For Airbus, selling its new superjumbo jet to the world's airports has been only slightly less strenuous than selling it to airlines...."What's going to happen when two of these planes arrive at the same time and dump 1,000 people into immigration and baggage claim?" said John D. Kasarda, an expert on airports and professor of business administration at the University of North Carolina.
Registration required.

Health Alert: Mints as stimulants?
NBC Health News Service
Could a whiff of mint give drivers a boost? A small study of 25 people suggests adding the scent of peppermint or cinnamon to the air may help reduce frustration and fatigue on the road.....Dr. Jane Stutts is a driver behavior researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, "That is intriguing research, we do need something because there are a lot of drowsy drivers out there."

States Give U.S. Companies Tax Breaks to Reduce 9% Unemployment
Bloomberg News Service
Dell Inc. needs to hire 1,500 people for a factory it's building in tobacco fields near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Carl Caddell needs a job....``I hate these giveaways,'' says James Smith, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

A label with many nuances
The Dallas Morning News
While most of us chow down on burgers and Buffalo wings without a second thought, roughly 3 percent of the population just says no to all forms of animal flesh....That's the number who identify themselves as vegetarians, says Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a registered dietitian who holds a doctorate in public health policy and teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

God? Sure, whatever (Book review)
Salon.com
Between real-life stories of lonely kids shooting their way out of despair and culture makers who can't stop fetishizing teen disaffection, it's hard to imagine adolescence as anything other than a time of surly skepticism.....That and other findings from the study, which was conducted over the phone and in person from 2002 and 2003 by a team of sociologists headed by Christian Smith, a professor at the University of North Carolina, can be found in the book

State & Local Coverage

UNC and N.C.'s East (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Oftentimes, it seems the eyes of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill do not look easily beyond I-95. Eastern North Carolina residents know they are served by East Carolina University, but UNC-Chapel Hill -- the state's flagship university -- is a far less prominent presence here than in other parts of the state.
Note: This editorial originally appeared in The Daily Reflector of Greenville on Wednesday. Chancellor Moeser spent Monday in Greenville as part of his Carolina Connects initiative. He participated with research leaders and faculty from East Carolina University and UNC-Chapel Hill in a strategy session on future collaborations. He also met with the editorial board of The Daily Reflector.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/may04/carolinaconnects052704.html

UNC's plan to clean waste site advances
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC is moving forward with a plan to clean up a chemical waste site on university land near the Horace Williams Airport.
Note: Details about the university's clean-up plans appear at www.unc.edu/community, a new website focusing on Chapel Hill, Carrborro and Orange County. Featured topics also include the university's position on proposed changes to the Town of Chapel Hill's Office-Institutional (OI)-4 zoning district, which governs development on the main campus.

Habitat, students to celebrate link
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser will celebrate a partnership between university students and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County this afternoon at Rusch Hollow, Habitat's new affordable community in Chapel Hill.

Chancellor meets with accolades, scorn
The Daily Tar Heel
Being the leader of the University is a job that takes a lot of hits....If the University doesn't meet its fund-raising goal, the chancellor is blamed for not soliciting enough donors.

The State of Poetry in North Carolina
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
In observance of National Poetry Month, host Frank Stasio speaks with Alan Shapiro, author of eight books of poetry (most recently, "Tantalus In Love," Houghton Mifflin/2005) and two memoirs and a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Glenis Redmond, a performance poet from western North Carolina, and Carole Boston Weatherford, poet and children's book author from High Point. We also check in with the Desert City Reading Series and the poetry program at the Greensboro Public Library.

Forum looks at U.S. toll from obesity
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Eat less and exercise more....Meanwhile, Kim Truesdale and Whitney Robinson, research investigator and research assistant, respectively, in the UNC School of Public Health department of epidemiology, described preliminary work showing some areas in which being overweight might not be such a problem.

'Motel' for hospitals at UNC on way out
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
There are no private rooms, and guests share public bathrooms. But the price at UNC Hospitals' on-campus "motel" is hard to beat -- $12 per person per night...."We have to put our funds into providing health care," said Karen McCall, the UNC Health Care vice president who oversees the motel program.

ATV ban is off table
The Winston Salem-Journal
The sponsor of a bill to forbid use of all-terrain vehicles by children under 12 pulled the bill from the N.C. Senate floor yesterday after complaints from hunters, farmers and tracks where youngsters race ATVs....."Living in Pennsylvania was associated with decreased risk factors for ATV injury, such as young age and riding unhelmeted," the researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan concluded.

Gauvreau leaks details to his reporter
The Charlotte Observer
Larry Gauvreau, longtime Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board renegade and recently hired newspaper publisher, outraged many of his colleagues Thursday by revealing details of Tuesday's closed meeting on leadership transition to a reporter who works for him....Here's what David Lawrence of the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute of Government writes in "Open Meetings and Local Governments in North Carolina: Some Questions and Answers."

Issues & Trends

Universities Don't Have To Help RIAA, Federal Judge Rules
MTV
In a blow to the record industry's effort to eradicate illegal music downloading, a federal judge has ruled that two North Carolina universities do not have to disclose the identities of two college students who allegedly file-swapped songs on the universities' computer systems....Lisa Katz, a spokesperson for the University of North Carolina, said the school was pleased with the order but does not condone students' downloading copyrighted information.

Bills would bar access to data
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The state legislature is considering denying taxpayers access to records about a variety of government activities....."People seem to view this as some people are in favor of openness and some people are in favor of secrecy, but that's a false dichotomy," said Leslie Winner, vice president and general counsel of the UNC system.

What do they have to hide? (Editorial)
The Wilmington Star-News
North Carolina's state and local government officials are seeking more powers to keep you in the dark....To its shame, the University of North Carolina system also wants to add exceptions. A public institution that's supposedly devoted to truth and public service is asking to hide even more of what it's doing - including who's giving it money.

Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time - often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.

Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.