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April 11, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:National Coverage
Immigrants claim pivotal role in economy
USA Today
On a typical workday, Jose Castro figures he hefts about 400 boxes full of industrial parts. Each container weighs an average of 75 pounds. Add it up and Castro, a "pack man" earning $8 an hour at an Irvine, Calif., distributor, totes the equivalent of 15 tons every working day. ...In North Carolina, where the immigrant share of workers with a high school degree or less doubled in the past five years, surging immigration has depressed wages for low-skilled native workers and cost some their jobs, says John Kasarda, a professor at the University of North Carolina's business school.
Sales Know-How Is Only a Footnote For Most Programs
The Wall Street Journal
A company's sales force is its lifeblood. But you'd never know it by looking at the typical M.B.A. curriculum. ...But the sales function seems to be slowly gaining more respect as a few other major schools, including Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of North Carolina, create M.B.A.-level sales courses.
Hazardous to Your Health (Opinion-editorial column)
The New York Times
Our government needs to do much more to control potentially deadly substances — plutonium, anthrax and high-fructose corn syrup. ...Barry M. Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that when kids snack on Cheetos, that at least spoils their appetites so that they eat less at meals. But when they chug Coke, they absorb as many calories — and it doesn't spoil their appetites.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/healthybeverage030806.htmFor Families, Next Steps (Opinion-editorial column)
The Washington Post
At the Smith home in Germantown, they're serving fruit for dessert. Last week in Upper Marlboro, the Tuckers added a fresh spinach salad to a family dinner. They're also snacking on smoothies made with strawberries and nonfat yogurt. ...It's this kind of family activity that a new University of North Carolina study suggests can pay off long-term for youngsters. Published in this month's edition of the journal Pediatrics, the study of nearly 12,000 teens found that those who participated in physical activities with their parents had higher self-esteem than their inactive peers who spent hours watching television.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/adolescentped033006.htmThe Blooker awards, for books arising from blogs
USA Today
Julie Powell always wanted to write a book. But as a New York secretary verging on 30, she was losing hope of that ever happening. ...Blooks are characterized by their passion, says judge Paul Jones, whose well-known blog features everything from his poetry to his views on open source software. "It helps a lot to have an obsessed audience egging you on in your own eccentric obsessions."
Related Link: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/magazine/daily/14071310.htm
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov05/blookerprize111605.htmPopular Menopause Treatment Comes Under Fire From Drug Company
ABC News
Menopause started for Jane Danielewicz 10 years ago, but it didn't come with hot flashes. Instead, she suffered debilitating cognitive symptoms. The University of North Carolina English professor was 43 at the time, but she felt she was losing touch with reality. At times, she said, it was so bad she couldn't even drive or read.
Regional Coverage
Bush's self-justification rare
The Baltimore Sun
President Bush said yesterday that he ordered the release of classified information in 2003 to prove his reasons for the Iraq war were legitimate - a striking assertion for a leader who has made secrecy one of the trademarks of his administration, analysts said. ...The explanation was a grudging one that reflected "the larger pattern of this administration's inability to convince the public of the necessity for war once it turns ugly," said Richard H. Kohn, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill specialist in presidential war leadership.
Unhealthy obsession
The Washington Times
Notice how it's not just young actresses a la Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie who are thinning as dramatically as sheep at spring shearing? ...Eating disorders are ballooning in older age groups, not just in Hollywood, but among American women overall, says Cynthia Bulik, director of the UNC Eating Disorders Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
War of success and safety battles on
The Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Ill.)
In the battle pitting success against safety in youth baseball, Marion attorney Doug Dorris can see it both ways. ...Between 1982-2003, eight people were killed, 14 suffered permanent disability and 18 suffered serious injuries in baseball, according to a study done by the University of North Carolina.
Reams vs. flocks: what’s the deal?
Mail Tribune (Medford, Ore.)
Just when we thought this one would be easy, it got interesting. According to "How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement" by mathematics Professor Russ Rowlett of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html), a ream is "a traditional unit of quantity, used for counting sheets of paper. The word is thought to be derived from the Arabic rizmah, meaning a bundle. A ream is equal to 20 ‘quires,’ which would be 480 sheets with the traditional definition of a quire as 24 sheets."
N.C. school system buries capsule honoring education in the state
The Virginian Pilot (Norfolk)
Pasquotank County Commissioner Cecil Perry offered himself as a time capsule for burial on Monday, but it was a white fiberglass box that went into the ground instead. ... The Weeksville school was founded by Charles Griffin, the first known school teacher in North Carolina, according to the "Dictionary of North Carolina Biography," published by the University of North Carolina Press.
Calculate Your BMI
WMTW-TV (ABC, Portland, Maine)
new study reveals that obese people might not consider themselves as such, making them at risk for health problems. A study at the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill looked at 104 clinically obsess adults ages 45 to 64. Only 15 percent of people considered themselves as obese.
State & Local Coverage
Students, workers join immigration protests
The Charlotte Observer
Nearly 400 Charlotte-Mecklenburg students missed class and more than 100 Latino workers boycotted their jobs Monday as the Carolinas joined immigrants' rights protests around the nation. ...Organizers estimated the "No Consumption Day" protest caused a $5 million loss to regional businesses, calculated from a UNC Chapel Hill report on Latino economic contributions in the state.
Related Link: http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=central&id=4074732Area immigrants join throng
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Crowds across the Triangle were among hundreds of thousands of people, most Hispanic, who marched nationwide Monday to protest a proposed crackdown on illegal immigration. ...At UNC-Chapel Hill, about 100 people held signs in English and Spanish at a rally organized by the Carolina Hispanic Association.
Related Link: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/W
SJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1137835282037Gilead a target of protest for AIDS drugs
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A dozen UNC-Chapel Hill students zipped themselves into body bags Monday in front of Gilead Sciences to shame the drug company into lowering the price of two of its HIV/AIDS drugs in poor countries.
Hospital closures hurt economies
The Asheville-Citizen
A study conducted at UNC Chapel Hill has concluded that closing the only hospital in a rural community has a negative impact on the local economy: In the three-year period after a lone hospital closed, researchers found the communities’ local per capita income levels fell 4 percent.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr06/ruralhospital040606.htmSexual behavior in teens increases with exposure to media
The Kinston Free Press
The internet and the media’s powerful messages have significant effects on sexual and violent behavior in teens. Teens with heavy exposure to media were shown to be two times more likely to have sex by the age of 16, said Jane D. Brown, a professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at Arendell Parrott Academy on Monday.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmHodding Carter
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
Hodding Carter, the recently appointed professor of leadership and public policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, was featured on today's (April 11) edition of "The State of Things." Hodding Carter III comes from what Ferrell Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life, has called “crusading southern newspaper people.” His father won a Pulitzer Prize for speaking out against racism in 1946 and he himself rose to become a world-renowned journalist and public servant. Carter discusses his Mississippi roots and the future of journalism.
AP analysis: College graduates chase jobs, culture to big cities
The Associated Press (N.C.)
College graduates are flocking to America's big cities, chasing jobs and culture and driving up home prices. ...Raleigh, N.C. - part of the booming Research Triangle region that is home to Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina - has both added population and college graduates.
Birdies, bogies and building business
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Never mind resumes and work experience. One hiring decision John McConnell made came down to a round of golf. The technology executive was on the links with a potential sales representative who "mysteriously found" his ball after it appeared to be lost. ...It's an advantage that colleges are recognizing as they prepare students for the work force. With support from the Professional Golfers Association of America, 54 schools, including N.C. State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Campbell University and Elizabeth City State University, have implemented "Golf: For Business and Life."
Firms generated more than $207M in tax credits in 2005
The Triangle Business Journal
Tax credits claimed by companies in North Carolina under the William S. Lee corporate incentives law continued to snowball during 2005, with the state now on the hook for nearly $1.5 billion in future credits. ...Michael Luger, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor who has studied the state's corporate incentives for several years, says provisions of the Lee Act combined with an expanding economy creates a booby trap for the state going forward.
New care option could be costly
The Triangle Business Journal
Hospital financial wizards and doctors across the state are beginning to evaluate what kind of monetary hit they might take when the nearly 600,000-member State Health Plan begins offering a new insurance option in the fall. ..."What the health plan is doing is no different from what other major employers - public or private - are doing around the country," says Aaron McKethan, a health care consultant and Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is writing his dissertation on the State Health Plan. "
Segregation stories offer needed reminders (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
When Taylor Branch arrived at UNC Chapel Hill in the fall of 1964, he was struck by a number of curious things. One of them, he said Thursday evening, was the strange sight of beekeepers on Tar Heel athletic fields. He quickly learned they were lacrosse players wearing strange helmets with a wire cage around their heads.
College reparations could right a wrong (Opinion-editorial column)
The Fayetteville Observer
Occasionally, you will hear a black leader call for reparations for slavery. ...The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill accepted black law students in 1951 and undergraduates in 1955. N.C. State integrated in 1956, East Carolina in 1963.
Issues & Trends
Bowles' mandate (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina's public university system is among the nation's best. In no small part, that's because the state's taxpayers have supported it generously and because its leaders focused on keeping costs low and keeping academic integrity high. That record has made the University of North Carolina system a valuable and influential resource in the lives of North Carolinians.
College Students Join in Immigration Protests
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Hundreds of thousands of people in scores of cities across the United States today rallied to oppose legislation in Congress that would make illegal immigration a felony, and among the protesters were many college students, including a number who had traveled en masse to marches and other demonstrations. ...About 100 people held signs in English and Spanish and chanted “We are not criminals!” at a rally organized by the Carolina Hispanic Association of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Associated Press).
Court records showed larger team problem
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The warning signs of a Duke University lacrosse team skidding toward disaster are scattered through the courthouse records of Durham and Orange counties – and have been for at least the past seven years. ...Alcohol and young, aggressive athletes playing a violent game are a volatile combination, said William Scroggs, senior associate athletic director at UNC-Chapel Hill and chairman of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s rules committee for men’s lacrosse.
Lawyers: DNA tests show Duke players innocent
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Long-awaited DNA testing failed to link Duke lacrosse players to the alleged gang rape of an exotic dancer at an off-campus party last month, lawyers defending the athletes announced Monday. ... But UNC law professor Rich Rosen said the test results don't entirely clarify the situation. "There's certainly no way this helps the prosecution," Rosen said. "It's clear that if I'm a defense attorney, this is a good result. Whether it's a definitive result or not, we'll have to wait and see."
Reaction To DNA Results
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
Richard Myers, associate professor of law at UNC-Chapel Hill, was featured on today's (April 11) edition of "The State of Things." A day after DNA results came back negative for members of the Duke lacrosse team accused of raping a N.C. Central University student, we look at where the case is now.
UNC board to ponder dental school for ECU
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Two committees of the UNC Board of Governors are looking at a proposal to establish a dental school at East Carolina University. The committees are debating a request for seven (m) million dollars in planning funds for a dental school plan submitted by ECU and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dorm Sprinkler Systems
WNCT-TV (CBS, Greenville)
ECU police are still trying to find the cause of last month's fire at a dorm. It happened at Clement Hall. One student suffered minor smoke inhalation. ..."It's a significant change, and tragedies do contribute to this change, no doubt about it," said Pete Reinhardt, Director of UNC-Chapel Hill's Environmental Health and Safety. "We've got to make this kind of commitment to make this plan and it's a long-term commitment, something we really feel like we have to do."
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.
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