July 25, 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

Gadgets to improve your health and your relationship
ABC News
Spending time together would be so much easier if you could only use the same iPod during a workout or not fight over cooking space while camping. ... Researchers at the University of North Carolina found that intimate touching, like the kind done in couples yoga, releases oxytocin, the hormone associated with emotional closeness.

Study: Nicotine lowers blood alcohol levels
Scripps Howard News Service
Those cigarettes may be driving you to drink more. ... But only two previous studies have looked at the interactions between nicotine and alcohol, so that little is known about how nicotine influences the metabolizing of alcohol, said Scott Parnell, the latest report's co-author and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of North Carolina.

Regional Coverage

The Problem with Algebra
The Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
Amy Doyel's face crinkles in pain as she remembers how algebra gave her fits in the eighth grade. ... "We really need to call on higher education to be more responsive to the needs of our public schools," he said, noting that the University of North Carolina and the University of Georgia are taking the lead in this regard. The two universities in recent years have begun modifying their curricula in response to teacher shortages.

Parents should become familiar with teens' slang
The Arizona Republic
Word up, parents. If your teen is suddenly speaking what seems like an entirely new language, don't worry. Slang is just a part of growing up, says Connie Eble, an English professor at University of North Carolina and author of Slang & Sociability.

Camden voucher foes mobilize
The Courier-Post (Cherryhill, N.J.)
With Mayor Gwendolyn Faison at the helm, school voucher opponents on Monday night made the first concerted local effort to respond to a lawsuit seeking to give students' families the chance to use taxpayer money to attend private schools. Walter C. Farrell, a University of North Carolina professor and voucher critic, told a group that well-heeled proponents of vouchers have turned New Jersey into its bull's-eye, with Camden an easy place to gain a foothold even though it has much to lose if money is drained from the public school system.

1912 expulsion: Forsyth County, Ga.
Austin-American Statesman (Texas)
No matter the method, throughout the fall and winter of 1912 terror spread through northern Georgia. The raiders never took a name, and if there was a single leader, the records do not name him. ... Even before Mae Crow was raped and killed, blacks in northern Georgia lived on the edge. Lynchings were common. There were 28 lynchings in all of Georgia in 1911 and 1912, most of black people, according to a list compiled by University of North Carolina professor W. Fitzhugh Brundage.

Schools of rock
The Kansas City Star (Mo.)
The South’s biggest musical destinations are, in many ways, obvious. You have Memphis blues, Nashville country and New Orleans jazz. ... But musical life at the University of North Carolina revolves around funkier West Franklin Street, where you’ll find a scene that’s darker, edgier and weirder than Charlottesville’s.

State & Local Coverage

Thekkekandam wins Kent Cooke Award
WCHL-AM (Chapel Hill)
His family may not have started with much, but local son of immigrant parents Thomas Thekkekandam has turned hard work into one of the nation’s biggest scholarships for graduate school. The 2004 UNC alum was named this year’s recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship last week.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jul06/jkcooke071906.htm

Teens driving while talking (Question-answer)
The Charlotte Observer
The N.C. legislature has passed a law making illegal for drivers younger than 18 to use cell phones while driving except in emergencies. What do you think of the law? ... Arthur Goodwin is a senior research associate at University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center. According to Mr. Goodwin, {quot}In 2004, there were 81 deaths in the state involving 15- to 17-year-olds.

Edwards' daughter doling out advice on life in Big Apple
The Charlotte Observer
When the world last saw Cate Edwards, she was campaigning for her father's vice-presidential bid with a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention. ... Does Edwards think her site's devotion to the upscale and trendy might clash with her father's recent focus on fighting poverty? (He's heading a poverty center at UNC Chapel Hill and has made it the centerpiece of what most political wags expect to be his presidential run.)

School's enduring lesson: Pride (Opinion column)
The Charlotte Observer
Former students will celebrate long-closed Reid High The school is long gone. ... Painter and sculptor Juan Logan made his first piece of sculpture as a student at Reid High in 1960. I caught up with him on the phone at Chapel Hill, where he's an associate professor at the UNC art department. I asked what the school meant to him.

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.