Dec. 7, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

National Note

Bart Ehrman: "Misquoting Jesus" (Harper San Francisco)
The Diane Rehm Show
Bart Ehrman, Chairman of the Religious Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of "Lost Christianities" and "Lost Scriptures." will be featured on "The Diane Rehm Show" Thursday at 11 a.m. A New Testament scholar descri, Ehrman, will discuss how mistakes and intentional changes made by scribes who hand copied the words of Jesus and the writings of Saint Paul have shaped cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs.

National Coverage

Many colleges ignore new SAT writing test
The Wall Street Journal
The prospect of churning out a coherent essay in the midst of the pressure-filled SAT test has been making high-school students around the country quake. But now that the first results of the new SAT writing test are in, many colleges say they're ignoring them. ...Stephen Farmer, director of admission at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says his school will use the SAT writing score "sparingly if at all" in the first year but will keep the scores on file to see for future years whether they correlate well with academic performance. Still, he said admissions officers weren't entirely disregarding it.

A New Deal for Students
Newsweek
Winter 2005 issue - The air was charged as ideas fired around the room in a chain reaction of passion and hope. Young, eager activists were drafting proposals, devising plans, and solving problems—history was in the making. ...The University of North Carolina chapter is currently working on one such project—the Roosevelt Institution Special Center on Emergency Preparedness and Relief (SCEPR). Alicia Raia, the director of the Center, explains how it began in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: “While students were engaging in noble causes, we recognized that there was a need for a long-term assessment of the government’s response to disasters, and a need to start a dialogue on the needs of communities and good practices that would prevent issues like these from arising in the future.”

Mortgage Stress Seen for '06
The Washington Post
Mortgage delinquencies among homeowners with high-cost loans will rise by 10 to 15 percent in 2006, as borrowers struggle with higher interest rates, high debt levels and higher energy costs amid flattening home prices, a new report from investment analyst Fitch Ratings predicts. Consequently, overall mortgage delinquencies are likely to rise next year, as well, according to the report's authors. ...A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that 20 percent of subprime loans went into foreclosure within four years, Ernst said.

Enlarged Brain a Sign of Autism
Ivanhoe Newswire
Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill say magnetic resonance imaging shows evidence of brain enlargement in a large sample of children with autism, compared with children who do not have the disorder. Heather Cody Hazlett, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues examined brain volume and head circumference in children with and without autism.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/cody120505.htm
Note: Ivanhoe has a syndicated television series and its reports are broadcast in 250 markets reaching 80 million U.S. households.

Regional Coverage

Recent leases sign of growth for university
The Athens Banner-Herald
About 30 University of Georgia Graduate School office employees will be packing up their belongings in the Boyd Graduate Studies building and moving north before the next school year. ...The University of North Carolina and Clemson University, similar in both size and presence in their respective host towns to UGA, are seeing opposite needs in terms of reaching for space off campus. North Carolina holds 55 leases for about 400,000 square feet in 30-40 buildings, the bulk of which are in Chapel Hill, said Bruce Runberg, the university's associate vice chancellor for facilities and construction.

New seat belt law will reduce traffic deaths, police say
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
At a time when traffic-related deaths on S.C. roads are on a record-setting pace and seat belt use in the state is among the worst in the country, a state law that takes effect Friday gives police the authority to stop a vehicle if they spot anyone inside not buckled up. ...Bill Hall, manager of the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center said "there always will be someone who will not comply," but that should not deter states from aggressive efforts to educate motorists about seat belt safety.

Study Finds Birth Control Pill May Have Dangerous Side-Effect
WMAQ-TV (NBC, Chicago)
A new warning was issued this week about the potential side-effects of birth control pills. ..."The risk for blood clots happens once the woman gets on the pill and is highest within the first year of being on the pill," said Stephan Moll, a doctor at the University of North Carolina Thrombosis Clinic. "But even after the clot risk continues, so women can clot even if they've been on the pill safely for four or five years."

State & Local Coverage

17.5% lack insurance, study finds
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It's hardly news to Lori Adams that the number of North Carolinians without health insurance is higher now than five years ago. ...(Mark) Holmes, a research fellow with UNC's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services, attributed the decrease to a slight turnaround in the economy and the imperfections of gathering statistical estimates. The study, conducted annually, analyzed two years of U.S. Census Bureau data.
Related Link: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/13346091.htm
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/ricketts120605.htm

UNC study: 17.5% lack health insurance
The Triangle Business Journal
A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study has found that the percentage of North Carolina adults under the age of 65 who lacked health insurance for at least a year rose to 17.5 percent in 2004, an increase of more than 2 percent from 2000 figures. The study, completed by staff at UNC's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, was based on the analysis of two years of data from the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of approximately 50,000 U.S. households conducted by the Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Duke, UNC get $1.65M GSK grant
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A $1.65 million grant from a foundation linked to GlaxoSmithKline is to jump-start a three-year collaboration between the UNC and Duke health systems to target improved hospital patient safety, reduced race-based health disparities and better handling of mental illness and HIV -- locally and globally. ...Duke's Victor Dzau and UNC's William Roper, who stepped to the thrones of their respective institutions within four months of one another last year, frequently profess their admiration for one another and their desire to bring the highly rated public and private institutions into more joint activities.

Putting Carolina on a toddler's mind
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A month or two into the middle-of-the-night feedings of his newborn son, Greene, Raleigh resident Ripley Rand grew tired of late night television and surfing the Web. And so, he began to write a book -- a children's book to read to his son, although one clearly with an agenda. Rand recently published the book "I Want to Go to UNC." "I wouldn't call it brainwashing but merely setting the tone," said Rand, a Doc Marten-wearing Wake Superior Court judge who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Healthy living is wrapped up in these gift suggestions (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
It's the season of giving, and it's time again to figure out what you'll buy the people on your list. ...Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.

`Shopping savior' tracks down missing bag
The Charlotte Observer
Elizabeth Freeman got to the car last month, loaded with packages after hours of shopping with her mother at Belk in SouthPark, and didn't have her purse. The UNC Chapel Hill junior dashed back in the store, jammed for the holiday shopping kickoff on the day after Thanksgiving. She found her "secret shopping savior" in customer service.

40th year of joyful music
The Chapel Hill Herald
The event is Deborah Coclanis' favorite part of Christmas. On Friday evening at the Wesley Foundation, Coclanis will play the harpsichord for the foundation-sponsored annual Messiah Open Sing, now in its 40th year. ...This year, UNC Professor of Music Susan Klebanow will conduct vocal soloists, orchestra and chorus. An experienced conductor both in the U.S. and abroad, Klebanow acknowledged that "it's always a challenge to put together such a large work with so little rehearsal time. But the instrumentalists have played together many times and know the piece well."

Roses & Raspberries (Opinion column)
The Chapel Hill News
Roses to the UNC football team, the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and the many others who helped make the Chapel Hill Service League's 2005 Christmas House a big success. The Christmas House program this year will provide toys and winter coats for more than 800 local children identified by family specialists in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system.

Issues & Trends

Learning to Lose? (Opinion-editorial column)
The Washington Post
In the five decades since I began working in the aerospace industry, I have never seen American business and academic leaders as concerned about this nation's future prosperity as they are today.

State may pay $30,000 of Black's legal fees
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The state Attorney General's Office and a legal adviser to Gov. Mike Easley have given House Speaker Jim Black permission to charge the state up to $30,000 in legal fees for complying with federal subpoenas seeking hundreds of records from Black's legislative office. ...Nearly 400 people are expected to attend a black-tie dinner tonight in Chapel Hill to honor retiring UNC President Molly Broad. On the guest list: past and present leaders of the 16 universities, student and faculty representatives, legislators and members of the state's congressional delegation.

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.