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December 12, 2003
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:International Coverage
Eating Too Much May Raise Colon Cancer Risk
Reuters
In determining a person's risk of colon cancer, how much they eat may be more important than what they eat, US researchers report in the American Journal of Epidemiology....[Jessie] Satia-Abouta of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues came to these conclusions following a study investigating the high rate of colon cancer in blacks.
Obese Kids on the Rise
Radio Netherlands
On Thursday, December 11, the Amsterdam Forum investigated the causes of and possible solutions to this epidemic of juvenile obesity. Panellists Joanne Harrell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, and Colleen Doak, from the Free University of Amsterdam,
answered the comments and questions of RN listeners and Web site visitors.
Low incomes, big returns
Financial Post (Canada)
Walking through Parkdale, a down-at-the-heels neighbourhood in west Toronto, one passes many cheque-cashing outlets...."The retail banking sector is very competitive and completely saturated, so [the big banks] see this as a possible area for growth," says Michael Stegman, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
National Coverage
Antisweatshop Champion Leaves Academe to Lead the Fair Labor Association
The Chronicle of Higher Education
A champion of the movement against sweatshops has left academe to lead the Fair Labor Association....Rutledge Tufts Jr., a former auxiliary-services official at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, became executive director of the Washington-based antisweatshop group last week.
Everett has location, work force, but economics favors N. Carolina
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Amid the tobacco fields of eastern North Carolina lies a grand $80 million economic development experiment that is Everett's biggest rival in the eight-month battle to win Boeing's newest economic prize....Jack Kasarda, the University of North Carolina professor whose economic development study a dozen years ago spurred the state to build the TransPark, thinks Boeing would be smart to build at Kinston.
State and Local Coverage
New treatment fights colorectal cancer
The Herald-Sun
Results of a five-year study of 795 patients show that a new combination of chemotherapy drugs, known as FOLFOX 4, outperforms the standard chemotherapy treatment for advanced colorectal cancer...."This is the greatest increase in survival time recorded to date with a new treatment used by patients enrolled in a large randomized study of colorectal cancer in the United States," said Dr. Richard Goldberg, the study's lead researcher. Goldberg, formerly a medical oncologist at the Mayo Clinic, is associate director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
UNC research shows exposure to endotoxin may worsen asthma
The Chapel Hill Herald
Exposure to endotoxin, a bacterial substance found commonly in outdoor and indoor air, makes mite-allergic asthmatics more sensitive to house dust and may place them at increased risk of asthma attack....The new research findings from the UNC School of Medicine are consistent with previous UNC studies showing exposure to ozone to make asthmatics more sensitive to allergens, the environmental triggers of allergic reactions.
Institute report: Banks support saving options for working poor
The Chapel Hill Herald
As Congress debates creating new tax incentives for banks that expand savings options for working poor people, a new report by the Kenan Institute's Center for Community Capitalism at UNC shows widespread support among bankers to continue such saving programs with federal aid.
Study: Religion trumps porn in teens' Web use
The Chapel Hill Herald
Overall, three times more U.S. adolescents with access to the Internet use it for religious purposes rather than for accessing pornography, a UNC study shows...."Forty percent of those teens who say that their faith is extremely important to them report using the Internet to visit religious Web sites a few times each month or more often," said Christian S. Smith, study principal investigator.
Grants to support mental retardation research
The Chapel Hill Herald
The U.S. Congress a year ago called on federal and private research agencies to enhance and increase their efforts and commitments to study fragile X syndrome (FXS), the leading cause of inherited mental retardation....Researchers at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute have responded to that challenge. This fall, institute investigators have been awarded six FXS-related grants worth nearly $10 million.
Reluctant lawmakers vote for job incentives
The Charlotte Observer
Lawmakers are learning it's hard to vote against something called the "Job Growth and Infrastructure Act," particularly in an election season...."They're desperate, I guess, to do something to maintain jobs in the state," said Dennis Rondinelli, a UNC Chapel Hill professor who is publishing a scholarly paper this month critical of incentives.
UNC Plans To Make Room For Tar Heel Faithful At Chapel Hill Cemetery
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
It was North Carolina native Charles Kuralt's dying wish to be buried in the Chapel Hill Cemetery. There was only one problem -- the graveyard was full....Now, the university has plans that will give many Tar Heel faithful the opportunity to make the historic cemetery their final resting place.
Endowment honors Dr. Patricia F. Waller
The Herald-Sun
Friends and colleagues of Dr. Patricia F. Waller have established an endowment
in the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) to honor her as the center's
founding director. Waller died Aug. 15 after a long illness.
Issues and Trends
Away at College, but Not Quite Away From Home
The New York Times
IN July, Frank and Sharon Davis bought a $186,000 three-bedroom house in Bellingham, Wash., with hardwood floors, a big deck and a tree-lined backyard....Maurice Grant wasn't looking for anything too fancy when his daughter Ravonne, then a student at the University of North Carolina, wanted to move off campus two years ago. He knew that the Chapel Hill market was strong and agreed to buy her a place.
Duke taps Yale dean as new president
The Herald-Sun
Duke University will name Richard H. Brodhead, a prominent Yale University dean, as its ninth president at a 10:30 a.m. news conference today, according to sources at Duke.
Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Russell Campbell at News Services, (919) 962-2091, russell_campbell@unc.edu, or Mike McFarland in University Communications, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu
Note: Web links on this page are time-sensitive, so stories might not be available after the day they first appeared.