July 16, 2007

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Clot risk high in hospitals
United Press International
One out of three U.S. hospital patients is at risk for dangerous blood clots, but far fewer actually receive treatments to prevent the potentially life-threatening condition, according to a study released this week. ...According to Nigel Key, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, the problem of dangerous blood clots is about to gain a higher profile.

Five-year mark for global partnership
The Financial Times
“The quality of the students on the programme is phenomenal,” says Peter Brews, associate dean, OneMBA programme, at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – one of the five partner schools.

National Coverage

Bush Leans On Petraeus as War Dissent Deepens
The Washington Post
Almost every time President Bush has defended his new strategy in Iraq this year, he has invoked the name of the top commander, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. ..."It seems to me almost an act of desperation, the administration turning to the one most prominent official who cannot act politically and whose credibility is so far unsullied, someone who is or should be purely driven by the facts of the situation," said Richard Kohn, a specialist in U.S. military history at the University of North Carolina.

Let Truth Step Up to the Plate (Opinion-editorial column)
The New York Times
A study by the University of North Carolina documented that in the past 20 years, a serious injury to a pitcher occurred only once for every one million high school aged participants.

Trial by Television (Book Review)
The Washington Post
In 1976, former President Richard Nixon made an arrangement with the British celebrity David Frost: Frost would interview Nixon for more than 20 hours on camera and pay him $1 million. Nixon would make money, possibly build a reputation as a statesman and remind the American people of his presidential achievements. ...James Reston Jr. was teaching creative writing at the University of North Carolina when he was asked to join Frost's team as a Watergate adviser.

Study Questions Efficacy of Popular Forehead Thermometer
HealthDay News
A new study is calling into question a widely used, noninvasive method of taking an individual's temperature, but company officials claim the findings were skewed by improper use of the product. ...Frederick Mueller, director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, said the study was "very interesting," but noted it involved a very small number of subjects, and so must be repeated with a larger population.

Edwards Embarks on Tour in South to Focus on Poverty
The New York Times
John Edwards came back on Sunday to a rainy New Orleans, the city where he kicked off his presidential bid last December, to start a three-day tour of poverty-stricken parts of the rural South and the urban Midwest in a bid to draw attention to one of his main campaign issues: the elimination of poverty. ...He set up the Center on Poverty Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina law school, which enabled the school to research poverty and also provided a platform for Mr. Edwards after he left Washington.

The Restless Gordon Gee Returns to Ohio State
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Gordon Gee, Vanderbilt University's chancellor and one of the best-known and highest-paid leaders in higher education, is headed back to his former post as Ohio State University's president. ...However, Mr. Kirwan said, the university does not receive the same level of state financial support as do some elite public universities, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Regional Coverage

Call to mind
The Boston Globe
The e-mails come from strangers who've seen him on TV talking about concussions and the terrible damage they can cause. The mother of an NFL player who is worried because her son is no longer the same guy. A soldier asking for the name of someone who can help him. Recently, an old Illinois high school teammate called. ..."That gives him a lot of legitimacy because he's been there and done it," says Dr. Julian Bailes ," who chairs the Department of Neurosurgery at West Virginia University and is medical director at the Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina.

State & Local Coverage

Study Abroad program goes green
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's Study Abroad Office is hoping to make the world a little greener. Before traveling to all corners of the globe, roughly 600 students at the university will be invited to take part in the new Green Passport initiative. The program, designed to reduce students' ecological footprints as they travel, will be launched in the fall.
Related link: http://www.charlotte.com/204/story/198603.html

UNC program recognized for innovation
The Chapel Hill Herald
A UNC program that teaches computer and research skills to area residents has received national recognition for its innovation in reaching out to the community. ..."It's been fabulous; it's really been a win-win situation for everyone," said Lisa Norberg, director of public services for UNC's Academic Affairs Library. "It's a chance for us to work with people that we don't often encounter at the university."

N.C. coast facing challenges of growth, rising water levels
The Associated Press (N.C.)
North Carolina's coast isn't what it used to be. The sound of seagulls competes with the grind of construction. ...Charles Peterson is a biologist with the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences. He says the water levels mean we've got to make some important decisions.

Judges aren't bound by prosecutors' deals
The Charlotte Observer
Former House Speaker Jim Black made a deal with federal prosecutors -- but obviously not with the judge. ...Black's and Decker's cases were more likely to draw out a judge's tendency to push beyond a plea bargain because they involved public officials who abused their office, said Michael Gerhardt, director of the Center on Law and Government at UNC Chapel Hill's law school.

Sessions' aim: Help downtown Monroe
The Charlotte Observer
Ella Hood, a pastor and business owner on U.S. 74, where many Monroe businesses have relocated, has a succinct way to characterize the city's downtown district. ...Richard Ducker, a UNC Chapel Hill professor with expertise in planning, says master plans in part serve as "a statement of what a city aspires for its downtown."

Photos online brew trouble
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Facebook.com and Myspace.com are virtual billboards for young people to proclaim who they are. ..."To the extent that it's a dress-up-and-play thing, it is widely misunderstood by adults," said Fred Stutzman, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill who has conducted many studies on online social networking sites.

Man drowns on first visit to park
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It could have been a severe asthma attack that caused a 22-year-old Raleigh man to drown at a water park Saturday. ...James Yankaskas, a professor of medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that even if Anderson was under water a short time, drowning could have been responsible.

Third Time a Charm for Micell Technologies? New Funding Could Help
LocalTechWire.com
The focus on stents and medical devices is the third for the heavily patented technology that is at the core of Micell’s history. Joseph Simone, a chemistry and chemical engineering professor at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina founded Micell, which dates back to the 1990s, launched the firm with a CO2 process seen as an alternative to dry cleaning.

A chance to grow (Opinion column)
The Chapel Hill News
I don't envy the job of a university admissions officer. In early May, a record number of applicants to UNC received news that they had been rejected for admission. More than 13,000, or nearly two-thirds of those who applied, were denied.

Issues & Trends

Right move on ads (Editorial)
The News & Observer
Ads for the state lottery have no place in advertising at sports events held by public universities, and Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, has done well to say so. He's also taken a position unlikely to win him friends in the Governor's Office, where the lottery is viewed as a wonderful benefit to North Carolina.

As historically black colleges boom, new leadership on tap
The News & Observer
It was a hopeful changing of the guard last week in Greensboro, as Stanley Battle, the new chancellor at N.C. A&T State University, grasped the ceremonial mace while hundreds of Aggies watched. The event marked a new beginning for the UNC system's largest historically black university after months of unpleasant news. The interim chancellor, Vic Hackley, had uncovered financial abuse and administrative chaos so serious that it required a SWAT team of UNC auditors to investigate.

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.