Jan. 9, 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

Middle Eastern women learn art of business
The Associated Press (National)
Divided into groups of four, the women from countries across the Middle East quickly break into eager conversation as they tackle an assigned problem. Talking over each other comes naturally, but their cacophony doesn't yield any quick solutions. ...Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. has focused more heavily on improving economic fortunes and diluting extremist messages in majority Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East, said (Jennifer) Bremer, the Washington director of a research institute based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Edwards pushes poverty up front (Opinion-editorial column)
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
During a winter season full of big drips in both Washingtons, a couple of would-be presidential candidates seem ready and willing to shine the light on our new, 21st-century Gilded Age of money and privilege. ...Edwards has been running the University of North Carolina's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. He was here in August to support local security guards' bid to organize.

High Risk
The Boston Globe
"Down in front! Down in front!" 88-year-old Josephine Miele screams at the fans blocking her view of Cassandra Dugas, her great-granddaughter and the tri-captain of the Mustangs, the all-girl cheerleading squad from Medford High School. ...And no other sport comes within shouting distance of cheerleading in terms of major injuries, such as spinal and head trauma, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, which is based at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Pain part of game for aerial athletes
The Kansas City-Star
Crystal Escobar has the battle scars of tough athletic competition: Five incisions where a surgeon reconstructed her battered right knee. ...The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill tracks severe injuries among school and college athletes. It found cheerleading to be the leading cause of direct catastrophic injuries among female athletes, accounting for more than half of the 101 such mishaps since 1982. Cheerleaders have suffered paralysis, skull fractures, brain damage, coma and concussions.

Peer pressure shifting driver's ed gears
The Houston Chronicle
Studies have shown for years that teenagers are more dangerous behind the wheel if other teens are along for the ride. Now some safety experts are trying to turn that peer influence into a positive, by making teens a part of their own driver's education. ...Robert Foss, of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, said most traditional driver's education "crams things into a few days and weeks that really need to be strung out over several months."

Milwaukee must face up to its nightmare (Opinion-editorial column)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The malicious beating of Samuel McClain by an unsupervised, seemingly out-of-control group of young black males within a block of a newly-opened Boys and Girls Club represents the latest incident in an escalating social crisis in Milwaukee's inner city. ...Walter C. Farrell Jr. is a professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

Master prognosticator expects yield to inch up
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Another year, another accolade for UNC-Chapel Hill economist James F. Smith. Of 66 economists polled by Bloomberg News a year ago, Smith's forecast for how the U.S. bond market would fare in 2005 proved to be the most accurate. It was the second year in a row that Smith ranked No. 1. He also was rated as the top forecaster by The Wall Street Journal three different years.

Non-business majors launch firms at UNC
The Triangle Business Journal
It has a reputation for being a Mecca of liberal economic thought, but the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a distinction that warms the hearts of ardent capitalists: America's most entrepreneurial college. ...UNC-Chapel Hill's fast rise in self-enterprise credibility tracks closely with the creation of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative in 2004.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct04/princetonforbes102704.html

Group taking aim at firms with illegal workers
The Charlotte Observer
A Raleigh-based immigration control group wants U.S. construction workers to report bosses who hire illegal immigrants. ...Paul Wilms, government affairs director for the N.C. Home Builders Association, said construction companies need to follow the law and he understands groups who want stiffer immigration laws. But he said the contributions of the Hispanic community outweigh the costs, noting a UNC-Chapel Hill study released this week that stated Hispanics contributed $9 billion to the state's economy last year.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

Our Latino Tar Heels (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
Spending by Hispanic residents in North Carolina had a $9.2 billion impact in 2004. On the other hand, as a group, Hispanics cost the state $61 million more in services than they pay in state and local taxes. ...The study, by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC-Chapel Hill, didn't look specifically at the role of undocumented immigrants. It did estimate, however, that just less than half the total Hispanic residents in the state in 2004 weren't documented, and that 76 percent of Hispanic immigrants to North Carolina in the past 10 years were unauthorized.

Taylor again misfires on an immigration issue (Editorial)
The Asheville Citizen-Times
Once again, Rep. Charles Taylor has made a serious mistake in his approach to dealing with the problem of illegal immigrants. ...The congressman would do well to read a study produced by the Urban Investment Strategies Center at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. According to the study, Hispanic workers filled about one-third of the jobs created in North Carolina over the past decade.

Doing our work (Editorial)
The Robesonian (Lumberton)
A 13-month study by a pair of University of North Carolina professors that examines the effect the fast-growing Hispanic community has had on the North Carolina economy concludes the state's businesses saved $1.9 billion in 2004 because of lowers wages they were able to pay.

Poor, black and gasping (Opinion-editorial column)
The Charlotte Observer
Recent University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights and Harvard University projects show that poor Americans and black Americans are more likely than anyone else to live in neighborhoods where high-poverty schools cause the greatest danger to the education of children. That's not surprising. But it is disturbing.

UNC musician goes Hollywood
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Director Lasse Hallstrom decided to go for baroque with the score to "Casanova." Cellist Brent Wissick of UNC-Chapel Hill was glad to help the cause by performing on the movie soundtrack. "Casanova," starring Heath Ledger as the legendary swashbuckling lover, is set in 1753 Venice, where the ornate melodies of the baroque era were heard.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/wissickmovie010406.htm
Note: This story was accompanied by a photograph by University photographer, Dan Sears.
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/wissick_brent_2.JPG

Scientist pays visit to ailing Pakistan
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Jonathan Mitchell, senior education scientist at RTI International, knows about Pakistan. ...Andrew Chen, a junior at UNC, agreed. Chen currently serves as co-president of the Carolina Earthquake Relief Coalition, an organization of UNC students that raised more than $30,000 in aid from mid-October through the end of UNC's fall semester.

UNC grads told to prepare for disaster
The Chapel Hill Herald
Jeffrey Runge, chief medical officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, told graduates of the Community Preparedness and Disaster Management program that they would lead their communities and states in preparing for terrorists attacks, epidemics and natural disasters. ...UNC's School of Public Health offers the certificate program for community leaders in emergency services, public health, emergency management, health services, veterinary medicine and other fields with responsibility to prepare for and respond to disasters.
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2006/runge010606.htm

Agenda 2006 (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolina is among the most successful states in combating drunk driving. In the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's most recent report on the percentage of fatal auto accidents involving a drunk driver, North Carolina at 27 percent ranked among the lowest states (trailing Vermont at 19 percent). ...Dr. Robert Foss, an alcohol specialist at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, says the strongest deterrent to drunk driving is certainty -- not severity -- of punishment. That's where efforts by our state and others fall short. Drunk drivers don't believe they'll get caught.

Cabarrus official disputes claim
The Charlotte Observer
For months, a small group of activists has alleged on Web sites and in public meetings that Cabarrus County commissioner Joni Juba acted unethically in voting on a contract for the county's new jail. ...State law says commissioners can't vote on something if they stand to gain financially from it. Unless Juba's company was going to get a contract for the jail, a conflict of interest did not appear to exist, said Frayda Bluestein, a professor of law and government at the N.C. Institute of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Notable
The Chapel Hill News
Yasmin Saikia, an associate professor of history in the College of Arts and Sciences at UNC, has won an Indian book award for the best book in social sciences.

Issues & Trends

An open pledge (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A bit of a cloud may have preceded Erskine Bowles' selection as president of the University of North Carolina system -- there was an illegally closed meeting in the course of the process -- but Bowles has acted quickly and properly to put the issue to rest. In an agreement reached with The News & Observer and other news organizations interested in open meetings (and suing to ensure them), the new president sounds a vow for openness.

Bits and Pieces (Editorial)
The Winston-Salem Journal
The University of North Carolina system's board of governors made an excellent choice in picking Erskine Bowles as its president, but one thing clouded the process: Legal experts say that the board violated the state's open-meetings law during the last stage of the selection process.

Don't let it slide (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
Senate leader Marc Basnight has said the state should charge tuition based on ability to pay rather than charging a flat fee as it does now. He aired that idea Dec. 28 in an interview on State Government Radio. Under such a system, the state tuition schedule would work like the state income tax schedule: Families that earn less would pay less and families that earn more would pay more.

Students face sticker shock
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It won't take an economics degree for college students to figure out what happened while they were away on winter break: Student loans got more expensive. ...How much those rate increases will ultimately cost students depends largely on how much money they borrow and how long they take to pay it back. The average debt for graduating seniors in the UNC system is about $17,500. Those who pay back the money in 10 years face an increase of a few thousand dollars at the higher rates.

City to study campus' impact
The Charlotte Observer
There's been plenty of hype about the planned $1 billion North Carolina Research Campus heading to downtown Kannapolis. Now, the city plans to use federal money to gauge how realistic the project is, looking to launch an economic impact study of the biotech hub.

WFU affiliate helping UNC
The Winston-Salem Journal
Wake Forest University Health Sciences said yesterday that it has won an expanded contract to help 11 of the 16 campuses in the University of North Carolina system bring new technologies to the public. Seed Stage Associates LLC, an affiliate of the medical school, will provide the service to the UNC system.
Related Link: http://triad.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2006/01/02/daily31.html

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.

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