Jan. 5, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Medicare drug-coverage message is mixed (Opinion-editorial column)
The Wall Street Journal
The expansion of the government's Medicare health-insurance program for the elderly to cover prescription drugs is more than a long-overdue acknowledgment of the growing importance of drugs in health care. It is a massive experiment in harnessing market forces -- consumer choice, competition, private insurers, private drug makers -- to improve a big government-run, taxpayer-subsidized program. ...This market-friendly expansion of Medicare doesn't seem to be paying political dividends or attracting much consumer interest so far. "This is a test case," says Jonathan Oberlander, a University of North Carolina political scientist. "It's a theory in search of population, and they've found the wrong population. A lot of what you're seeing is what happens when you try to turn seniors and people with disabilities into computer-linked consumers. It's insanity."

Regional Coverage

Religion Today: Cooked books? (Opinion-editorial column)
The Gaylord Herald Times (Mich.)
Recently, Bart Ehrman, a highly respected scholar of the New Testament and early Christian literature at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) was interviewed on PBS about his new book, just released in November, which is provocatively titled “Misquoting Jesus: The Story About Who Changed the Bible and Why.

'Are you on the Facebook?'
The Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Alex Teig moved from Austin to Boston after graduating from the University of Texas. She's 22 and single with a photogenic smile. She's a graduate student at Brandeis University and really likes "Sex and the City." ...Of all the online social network services, including My-Space and Friendster, Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla, said Fred Stutzman, who is working toward a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science.

State & Local Coverage

If they don't keep working, will N.C.?
The Charlotte Observer
Roofer Andrew Rowland has his own take on the immigration debate: He needs his immigrant workforce to stay competitive. ...The issue gained steam this week with the release of a study by UNC Chapel Hill. The school's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise reported Tuesday that the Hispanic community has grown to an estimated 600,913. And it has contributed $9 billion to the state's economy. But the study also reports that low-wage Hispanic workers held down wages by nearly $2 billion in 2004.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

Financial Impact: Issue of immigration arises
The Winston-Salem Journal
Before Gabriela Gonzalez and her husband, Sergio, opened a clothing-and-boots store in Winston-Salem, he sold Western-style shirts and jeans out of a truck on the streets. ...Gonzalez said she didn't know that she was part of a Hispanic community with a sizable effect on state and local economics. According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that was released this week, purchases and tax contributions by Hispanics had a $504 million impact in Forsyth County in 2004.

Beautiful minds
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It was just a sunflower growing in his back yard, an image he captured when he was 18, an image that stuck in his mom's mind. ..."And it's high-quality work," said Dr. Diana Perkins, psychiatry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and STEP medical director. "So instead of having the stigma of being seen as a person with an illness, [the patients are] recognized for their talents and the contributions they can make," she said. "The artwork is a contribution, a product of value."

Curtain falls for artistic director
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
David Hammond will step down as artistic director of PlayMakers Repertory Company in June. ...The search to replace Hammond will begin soon, although the position that will be advertised will be somewhat different than the role he has filled. The new position, called producing artistic director, won't involve teaching classes. Instead, the person chosen will focus on refining the company's operations, finances and working with the community, said McKay Coble, the chair of the department of dramatic arts at UNC.

Use labels to eat less trans fat (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Something that can help us all eat better is arriving in grocery stores: information about the trans fat content of packaged foods. ...Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.

Our View: Public health officials have a health-care idea that is worth a try (Editorial)
The Fayetteville Observer
The suggestion from public health officials that they could provide health care to the working poor is untried and untested in the Cape Fear region. It could be costly. It might not work. ...A study from UNC-Chapel Hill reports that nearly one in five people under age 65 have gone without health insurance for at least a year in North Carolina.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/ricketts120605.htm

Distraction of driver can create mess on the roads (Opinion-editorial column)
The Winston-Salem Journal
The woman who was driving a sport-utility vehicle surely didn't mean to bump the pedestrian. But she did. She was in the right lane on Cherry Street, looking to turn from one one-way street onto another. Nothing wrong with that. ...Closer to home, researchers at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center estimated in 2001 that 1,475 wrecks in this state involved the use of a cellular telephone.

Durham drops further adult club restraints
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Saying Durham's laws on the matter are already as tight as they can be and still survive a court challenge, city and county officials have shelved the idea of imposing further restrictions on strip clubs and other adult establishments. ...Most local governments that regulate adult businesses try to stick to tried-and-true restrictions that have survived court scrutiny, said David Owens, a professor at UNC's School of Government who has published papers on the regulation of adult establishments.

Speaker chosen for MLK week
The Chapel Hill Herald
Nikki Giovanni, a nationally recognized poet and a professor at Virginia Tech, will deliver the keynote address for UNC's Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week, Jan. 15-20. ...Ernest Green, the oldest of the first nine black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., will give a free public address at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/mlk010406.htm

Widen your art radius
The Independent Weekly
2006 brings a range of worthwhile exhibitions to local and regional art centers and museums. The theme locally is on African-American artists and experience. At the ACKLAND MUSEUM at UNC-Chapel Hill through March 26 is Family Legacies: The Art of Betye, Lezley, and Alison Saar, with an artist's reception on Sunday, Jan. 22.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec05/familylegs121205.htm

Issues & Trends

USC should educate S.C. students first (Letter to the editor)
The State (S.C.)
According to your editorial staff, and presumably the board of trustees at the University of South Carolina, one way to raise the prestige of a degree from the University of South Carolina is to allow more out-of-state students with high SAT scores into the entering freshman class. ...The University of North Carolina’s 2005 freshman class was comprised of about 83 percent North Carolinians. That state obviously understands the value of giving in-state students access to quality higher education. So should we.

Police office to move to Sykes Street
The Chapel Hill Herald
The Chapel Hill Police Department hopes to move its substation in the Northside neighborhood into a more visible spot. ...Empowerment, along with the land trust and Habitat for Humanity of Orange County, have formed the Northside Initiative to continue some of the efforts, particularly in boosting home-ownership. The Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC also is playing a role in that initiative.

UNC’s back in good hands (Editorial)
The Wilmington Morning Star
The University of North Carolina’s new boss seems to understand what his predecessor didn’t: He’s been entrusted with the state’s crown jewels, but that doesn’t make him an emperor. ...“If we must have one,” he wrote his top staff of an inauguration, “would anyone be offended if we kept the cost very low?” Apparently the staff believed they must have one.

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.