Dec. 20, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Enzyme offers new look at gene regulation
United Press International
University of North Carolina scientists say they've purified a protein and have shown it can alter gene activity by reversing a molecular modification. The researchers say they demonstrated a protein called JHDM1A is able to remove a methyl group from histone H3, one of four histone proteins bound to all genes. Until just last year, the addition of a methyl group to a histone had been regarded as irreversible.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/novelenzyme121905.htm

Even diluted chlorine kills noroviruses
United Press International
A University of North Carolina study suggests chlorine is much more effective at killing noroviruses than previously believed. The scientists said even weaken chlorine solutions can still be used to kill more than 99 percent of noroviruses, the chief cause of outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness around the world.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/sobsey121905.htm

Regional Coverage

Corporate America caught in culture tug-of-war
The San Diego Tribune
Businesses want to make money, not waves. But today, that's no easy feat. ...The religious right has plenty of economic clout as well. Research at the University of North Carolina found that conservative Christians are more affluent and better educated than the average American.

Preventing Premies: Gums, Germs, and Gestation
WTVQ-TV (ABC, Lexington, Ky)
Every year, nearly half a million babies are born prematurely. Experts say some of those premature births may be linked to the poor dental health of Mom. ...This trial is called the MOTOR trial (which stands for Maternal Oral Therapy to reduce Obstetric Risk). It is ongoing in San Antonio, as well as at the University of Alabama and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep05/whiter091605.htm

State & Local Coverage

Law students to spend winter holiday helping Hurricane Katrina victims with legal issues
The Triangle Business Journal
It would be tough not to recognize some local holiday good cheer directed at storm-ravaged New Orleans. A group of 15 law students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be spending their holiday break helping Hurricane Katrina victims apply for federal Emergency Management Agency assistance.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/winterprobono120905.htm

Agency seeks change in death penalty
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tye Hunter, head of the state's Indigent Defense Services, had an attention-getting message for lawmakers Monday: He wants his agency to spend less money defending accused killers. ...One recommendation that both Hunter and UNC law professor Jack Boger made to the committee was to look at how Virginia defines which first-degree murder cases qualify for death. In North Carolina, a defendant who commits another felony in the course of a murder can face the death penalty. In Virginia, a defendant who commits only certain felonies -- such as rape, robbery and abduction -- during a murder faces death.

N.C. death penalty committee considers fairness of punishment
News 14
A legislative panel studying the death penalty says its goal is not to get rid of capital punishment. It wants to study the fairness of the death penalty in North Carolina and figure out whether changes should be made. ...But UNC Chapel Hill Law Professor Jack Boger says the committee faces tough decisions. "The committee ought to narrow the range of the capital statute. Right now we have a statute so broad that 700 people are potentially eligible for capital punishment."

Know who grew your tree? (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
`Tis the season for Christmas trees and immigration reform, two issues that are rarely considered in the same thought. But they are intricately interconnected in important ways: As with most agricultural products, growers rely heavily on immigrant labor to bring the trees to market. ...Jesse James DeConto is Roy H. Park Master's Fellow at the University of North Carolina and a Phillips Foundation fellow.

Detect bombs, not scissors (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The uproar over the government's announcement that it would no longer search for and confiscate passengers' 4-inch scissors and screwdrivers demonstrates how our society is still struggling to define the concept of "security" in the post-9/11 world. ...David Schanzer is director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill.

NCAA figures boost rates
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...The Tar Heels football team went from 57 percent with the federal rate to 64 percent with the NCAA's rate. Men's basketball went from 75 to 82 percent. On the women's side, six of 13 women's teams graduated 100 percent of their athletes.
Related Links: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-NCAA-Graduation-Rates.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2005-12-20-graduation-rates-sidebar_x.htm

Who cares about the bus? (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
I wonder whether Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, or any top official of the Transportation Security Administration, has ever visited the Greyhound Bus Terminal on Harrison Street in downtown Chicago. Or any other urban bus terminal for that matter. ...Steven I. Levine teaches at UNC-Chapel Hill and occasionally rides the bus to western Montana.

Hedge funds a new cash option for small public biotechs
The Triangle Business Journal
When Icagen went public in February, the company drew interest from a relatively new breed of investors: hedge funds. ..."It certainly has grown very sharply," says Jennifer Conrad, a professor of finance at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Menus for not-so-retiring tastes
The Triangle Business Journal
Anyone who has scrambled to whip up yet another week's worth of nutritionally sound meals that the kids and spouse will eat should empathize with Claire Lindsay. ...Pam Haines, an associate professor of nutrition in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, notes that because residents of nursing facilities and assisted living homes are often at different levels of functioning, looking for adequate staff numbers and staff training is key when evaluating a home.

Uninsured in North Carolina
The New Bern Sun Journal
Zola Johnson is an unwilling statistic, and she says there's little she can do about it. ...The report recently released by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "County-level Estimates of the Number of Uninsured in North Carolina: 2004 Update," confirms this. The study indicates an overall increase of North Carolina residents under age 65 who lack health insurance for a year from 15.3 percent in 2000 to 17.5 percent in 2004.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/ricketts120605.htm

Job outlook worries new graduates
News 14
Finding a job in the Triangle could be getting tougher. A new manpower survey says fewer companies expect to hire people in January, February and March. And of 60 companies surveyed, only 13 percent say they will hire new employees. Eighty-four percent of the companies say they do not plan on hiring or firing. That news worries some of the students who graduated from the University of North Carolina on Sunday.

Issues & Trends

College loans bear biggest part of budget-cutting plan
CNN.com
As Congress moves to slash $40 billion in spending, no program will take a bigger hit than college loans, where almost $13 billion would be cut over five years. For students, the upshot is mixed. Excessive government payments to banks would be halted, freeing up some dollars for new grants, larger loan limits and reduced loan fees.

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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/newsserv/clips/index.shtml

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

 

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.