Jan. 3, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Two genes essential for muscle development
United Press International
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers say they have found two genes that are essential for the proper development of muscle. The genes are among a recently discovered group of genes known as microRNAs, or miRNAs, which were first discovered in worms 12 years ago. Only in the past few years have they become recognized as essential gene regulators in many multicellular organisms, including humans, says senior author Dr. Da-Zhi Wang.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/muscle122905.htm

National Coverage

Top forecaster sees U.S. recession
Bloomberg News
The U.S. bond market's most accurate forecaster, who plies his trade 500 miles from Wall Street, says yields are sending ominous signs about the economy. While economists at the biggest bond-trading firms wrongly predicted that the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield would end last year at 5 percent, a University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, professor came a lot closer to getting it right. "It was luck, partly," said James F. Smith, 67, who teaches finance at the school. "The other reason is the anticipation that inflation would be contained and that continued rate increases from the Federal Reserve would keep longer-maturity investors enthused about their returns."

At 150 Edgars Lane, Changing the Idea of Home
The New York Times
The handsome Tudor-style home at 150 Edgars Lane, built for less than $10,000 in 1925 on a hillside in this Hudson River town, never seemed to change much through all of its previous owners. Each family updated the house, but in modest ways until Tom and Julie Hirschfeld came along. ..."Community is still very important," said William M. Rohe, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "But homeowners today pay greater attention to the house itself as an expression of themselves and as a haven for family life."

Teenagers Mix Churches for Faith That Fits
The New York Times
At 11 a.m. on a recent Sunday, Emily Hoogenboom, 14, was at church, her second that morning. ...Parents also want their children to have an "authentic" relationship to faith, and "if you don't choose it, it's not authentic for you," said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina and director of the survey on youth and religion.

Voting Inequities (Letter to the editor)
The New York Times
It is true that the communities of origin for many prisoners are disenfranchised when their incarcerated members are counted as living in remote prisons when districts are drawn up. Around the country, the political power of the largely white, rural districts where prisons have been built in the last 30 years is unfairly amplified by nonvoting prisoners. ...Philip N. Cohen. The writer is an associate professor of sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Big stories of 2005 will weigh on consumers this year
MarketWatch
The ways in which consumers pay for and receive health care began to shift this year and many of those changes will be felt even more strongly in 2006. ...The success of the program depends on how many and what kind of people sign up for the benefit, and it's unclear whether both healthy and sick are turning out yet, said Jonathan Oberlander, associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Pricey Jeans Give Hanmi CEO Leg Up to Top Rank of Forecasters
The Wall Street Journal
Sung Won Sohn can thank a pair of $250 denim jeans for his top place in The Wall Street Journal's annual U.S. economic-forecasting rankings. ...Finishing at the bottom of the pack were James Smith of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School; Maury Harris of UBS Securities; Peter Hooper of Deutsche Bank; and Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust -- all low with their inflation forecasts. Mr. Smith blames Hurricane Katrina for keeping energy prices elevated through year-end.

Family Tree Of Former Slaves Coming Together In Durham
The Associated Press (National)
The family ties of nearly 1,000 slaves from a once-sprawling North Carolina plantation are being pieced together with the help of their owners' records and their descendants. ...The first phase of the work started in the 1980s at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A student who interned at Stagville sifted through all the Cameron-Bennehan papers on campus and documented the name of every enslaved black he came across. The thick binder filled with pages of names such as Orange, Toast, Mittie, Solomon, Moses and Little Lot sat unused until Farley arrived.

State & Local Coverage

Report: N.C. Hispanics contribute billions
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina's fast-growing Hispanic community is almost 20 percent larger than government estimates, nearly half illegal and contributes billions to the state's economy, according to research released today. Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan Institute also said the state spent $61 million -- $102 per Hispanic -- more than it received in taxes to provide key social services.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

3 remain on law school dean list
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
The three finalists for dean of the UNC School of Law will be on campus this month for visits and public interviews. The three contenders are Erwin Chemerinksy, a Duke law school professor who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court; Dave Douglas, a law professor at the College of William & Mary and director of that school's Election Law Program; and Teresa Roseborough, a private attorney in Atlanta and graduate of the Carolina law school.

Coming up in 2006
The Chapel Hill Herald
...At both Chapel Hill and the other schools in the UNC system, leaders won't waste any time getting things started in 2006. The UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees plans in January to take up the question of tuition increases for the Carolina campus, along with the possible addition of a couple of $50 fees, related to athletics and administrative computing. A campus task force on tuition has laid out three options, and Chancellor James Moeser will recommend a tuition plan to the trustees. Two of the task force's options call for $300 increases for in-state tuition, while the others include increases of $200 and $250 for in-state students.

What's going on
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Mixed-media works: Fifty pieces of art are being displayed through March 26 at the Ackland Art Museum in the exhibition of "Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley and Alison Saar." Influenced by their mixed-race ancestry -- African-American and European with a trace of Native American -- the three artists interpret family, identity, race and gender in their artwork.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/familylegs121205.htm

Law Students Help: Fifteen students went to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans as part of the pro bono program to help clients recover Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance for destroyed property, protect the civil rights of those left homeless by Hurricane Katrina and seek remedies for those who have been wrongfully evicted from their homes.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/winterprobono120905.htm

Program well-funded: The 2006 U.S. Department of Defense Appropriations bill includes $3 million for the Citizen-Soldier Support Program to strengthen its outreach to the families and loved ones of the Army and Air National Guard and the reserve components of all of the armed services.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/csspfunding1205.htm

Health literacy: Health care providers soon will have access to a new tool designed to assess patients' health literacy skills quickly and simply, thanks to medical school researchers at the University of Arizona and UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/pignone121305.htm

Theater, dance, music, more on tap
The Chapel Hill Herald
While the season for planting is still months away, the spring 2006 lineup for the arts in our area is bountiful. With the transformation of UNC's Memorial Hall into a world-class venue for the performing arts, the ArtsCenter's commitment to local, national and international arts, established professional and independent theaters, and a lively community of artists, our area offers weekly opportunities to discover and enjoy drama, dance, music and the visual arts.

Durham set to count beans again
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In Durham County, 2005 was the year without an internal audit. In 2006, county leaders expect that to change. ...The use of audit committees is becoming more common within town and county governments, said Greg Allison, an assistant director with UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Government.

Broun to head Carolina North committee
The Chapel Hill Herald
The chairman of a new "leadership advisory committee" being set up by UNC to get input on Carolina North planning will be Kenneth Broun, a former mayor of chapel Hill and former dean of the UNC School of Law. UNC Chancellor James Moeser notified officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County this week that Broun had agreed to serve in that role for the new committee.
Note: No link available.

Year until Public Works move
The Chapel Hill Herald
There's just one year to go and counting for the town of Chapel Hill's biggest-ever capital project. The town has to have its Public Works and Transportation departments out of their present location and into new and improved digs by Dec. 31, 2006, when the town's lease expires. ...The university has big plans for Carolina North, and it wasn't willing to renew the lease with the town, although UNC is far from being ready to break ground on any Carolina North project that would use the land occupied by Public Works Transportation.
Note: No link available.

Oh-five: Over and out
The Chapel Hill News
The past year saw more housing added to downtown Chapel Hill, little of it affordable. ...More than 170 UNC staff attended the late-November dedication of UNC Information Technology Services' newly renovated building at 440 W. Franklin St. The 54,000-square-foot facility consists of a main building and annex, with office space for about 200 of the university's information technology professionals. The renovation cost $11.7 million.
Related Link: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/our_town/story/2867176p-9323962c.html

Notable
The Chapel Hill News
...Mary H. Palmer of Chapel Hill has received the 2004 Urologic Nursing Nurse Competence in Aging Literacy Excellence Award in recognition of her article on geriatric nursing. Palmer's article "Physiologic and Psychologic Age-Related Changes That Affect Urologic Clients" was published in the August 2004 issue of Urologic Nursing." Palmer is a professor at UNC and is the Helen W. and Thomas L. Umphlet Distinguished professor in aging.

Issues & Trends

Bowles embraces job
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Erskine Bowles brokered deals on Wall Street and ran Bill Clinton's White House, so it's no surprise that he is taking over the UNC system presidency with a businessman's eye and a politician's touch. ...The man who once ran the White House assures folks that he is just one of the staff. He has taken to calling the UNC system staff "general administration" again, a term Broad had dropped in favor of the more reverential "office of the president."

Triad schools hope Bowles will raise their profile
The Triad Business Journal
Leaders at the four Triad campuses in the University of North Carolina system will start the year with a new leader, and hope that he will prove to be an ally in their efforts to boost the local economy and upgrade research facilities. ... A UNC spokeswoman said Bowles is declining all press interviews until he formally takes office, but reports from participants in his Triad visits indicate he got a clear message that area public universities want to raise their profiles in the business and technology communities.

Setting the Agenda (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
All year long, we here at the Journal, much like our readers, deal with one issue, one problem, after another. Often, we deal with them in a hurry. ...The General Assembly must reverse its trend of forcing tuition and fee increases to pay for the university. And, it must rein in those officials in the University of North Carolina system who wish to send tuition higher. The university is not a private, Ivy League school. It is a university for the people of North Carolina - and that fact should be made very clear to those who would keep raising university costs for students.

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.