February 5, 2004

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

International Coverage

Gene sheds light on blood-clotting
Irib, Iran
Scientists have identified a gene needed by vitamin K to form harmful blood clots, in a
finding that could speed up the search for new treatments for irregular heartbeats and
coronary artery disease....The discovery by Tuddenham and scientists at the University
of Wurzburg in Germany, and researchers at the University of North Carolina in the
United States should reveal more about how vitamin K is involved in blood-clotting.

National Coverage

Baddour deal goes through 2007
National Associated Press
North Carolina athletics director Dick Baddour received a three-year contract extension
Wednesday, keeping the longtime administrator at the school until 2007.
(Note: Coverage of Baddour's contract extension appeared in sport news roundups across the nation. See below for N.C. coverage.)

Up from the underground
The Boston Globe
The Harriet Tubman statue in Boston's South End, near the corner of Columbus Avenue and Pembroke Street, is about 8 feet tall, about 3 feet taller than the real Tubman...."She's almost mythic," says William L. Andrews, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a specialist in African-American autobiography.

Kids may need to talk about a revealing halftime show
The Boston Globe
By now it's clear children need not have watched the Super Bowl halftime show to be confused by it...."For some children, this won't have been anything out of the ordinary," says Jane D. Brown, a media researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and editor of "Sexual Teens, Sexual Media" "If they're watching MTV, dating shows, or reality programming, this is pretty much what they see all the time."

Why the Democrats need the South
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Does a New England Democrat have any hope at all of peeling votes from a Republican in the South?...A third is a purely strategic. Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Southern Life at the University of North Carolina, argues that the Democrats don't have to sweep the South to cause the Republicans trouble; they just need to make the GOP spend some of its time and energy here, diverting resources from the North and Midwest and West.

As Cheerleading Gets Athletic, Is It Safe?
Good Housekeeping
Cheerleading was Bethany Norwood's life. She began cheering at age 4....And the number of injuries may be on the rise. In fact, one study by Dr. Robert Cantu of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina found that 57 percent of all catastrophic injuries and deaths to females in high school and college sports are due to cheerleading.

Aspirin Can Help Prevent Heart Attacks
WTOP Radio Network, Washington D.C.
Will a low-dose aspirin a day keep the doctor away?...Aspirin, the old standby for headaches, fevers and aching joints, is now widely used in the fight against cardiovascular disease and looks like a good bet to stave off colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer and perhaps cancers of the esophagus, stomach and rectum, as well....``For primary prevention,'' (Sidney) Smith explains, ``if your risk of having a heart attack is greater than 1 percent per year, you should take aspirin, unless you are allergic to it or have a history of bleeding problems,'' says Smith, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina Medical School at Chapel Hill.

State and Local Coverage

Baddour rewarded
The News & Observer
North Carolina Chancellor James Moeser said Wednesday that he doesn't "wake up at
night worried that there is something running amok in the athletic department -- and I might
if I were somewhere else."..."No one's happy with football right now,'' said Moeser, who
credited Baddour for hiring coaches with character and integrity. "Dick's not happy with
football, John Bunting's not happy with football, and neither am I. We want this program to be competitive at the highest levels, which means we want to compete for championships in the ACC which would put us at the highest levels of collegiate football. Do I have confidence in Dick Baddour? Absolutely. That's why he's athletics director.''
Related link includes:
http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/18-443833.html

UNC moving forward -- for all (Letter to the Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Regarding the recent editorial, "Crisis of confidence" [Feb. 1], I agree with one undisputable premise: great things are indeed happening at Carolina....The university's future success will benefit all North Carolinians.
James Moeser, Chapel Hill, February 5, 2004

Well-earned pay (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer
Dennis Rogers misunderstood basic economics in his Feb. 4 column on university
professors' pay. He attacked the high salaries of full professors (average salary of
$105,200) compared with other teaching salaries ($44,189 for the average Wake County
school teacher, and less for a community college instructor). Rogers missed the point
of a competitive system.

Tears on the velvet pillow (Commentary)
The News & Observer
Someone send in the reinforcements, and be quick about it. Can you hear the
thundering hooves? Can you see them in the distance, kicking up the dusty trail
in front of South Building, hollering and waving their swords as they spread to the
laboratories and classrooms? And there stands General James Moeser in the
midst of it all, his skin burning from the sun, his saber above his head, his buckskins
tattered from wear, his boots muddy from hours on the battlefield.

Heart Disease No. 1 Killer Of Women
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of
women over the age of 25; stroke ranks third...."Most of them say maybe only one
in three are talked to by their primary care physician about what they can do to
prevent heart disease," said Dr. Paula Miller, a cardiologist at University of
North Carolina Hospitals.

Roymania: A Tar Heel state of mind
The News & Observer
So what if the Tar Heel men's basketball team has not been king of the road so far
this year?...Now that Roy Williams is back in the Carolina court as head basketball
coach at UNC-Chapel Hill, a certain brisance has returned to town.

UNC recruit arrested on drug charges
The Herald-Sun
Eastern Alamance High basketball star JamesOn Curry, a North Carolina recruit who is
the state's career scoring leader, was among 49 students arrested on drug charges
Wednesday morning in a sweep of six high schools in the Alamance-Burlington School
System....If an arrest or other incident occurs after an applicant is admitted to the
university but before the start of the school year, the student must let the admissions
office know, said Jerry Lucido, UNC's director of undergraduate admissions.
Related links include:
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/alam/hsarrests_020504.htm
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/unc/story/3304506p-2948878c.html

UNC scientists find clotting gene
The Herald-Sun
For generations, mothers have encouraged their children to eat their vegetables. And in
the early 1940s, scientists learned that vitamin K, which is found in green leafy vegetables
like spinach and kale, was necessary to help blood clot, even though the body does not
produced it naturally. Now scientists at UNC have identified and cloned a gene that enables the body to use vitamin K -- a gene that appears to be the "other half" of a similarly useful one found 13 years ago.

A quick diagnosis (Editorial)
The News & Observer
The severance package awarded by contract to Eric Munson, the departing chief of UNC
Hospitals, amounts to over three-quarters of a million dollars. That's not a golden
parachute; it's a fluffy cloud. And while such agreements with those in similar positions
apparently are not uncommon, the fact that University of North Carolina officials approved moving Munson out suggests they lacked a proper regard for the size of the expense the state would incur.

Munson gets more than a golden parachute (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Remember the uproar that accompanied the departure of Susan Ehringhaus? On and off
campus a couple of years ago, there was strong disapproval of the deal Chancellor James Moeser struck with the departing general counsel.

Heart Association issues wake-up call to women
The Herald-Sun
The American Heart Association issued a wake-up call to women and their doctors
Wednesday, listing specific recommendations tailored to women's heart problems in an
effort to reduce deaths and illness....Sidney Smith, chief of UNC's Division of Cardiology
and the 1995 president of the American Heart Association (AHA), was among the authors
of the guidelines, which have been published in the AHA journal, Circulation.

Issues and Trends

Council candidate spending a record
The Herald Sun
The 2003 Town Council race finished with a new record in spending by a candidate, but
campaign spending didn't directly translate into victory.

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

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