June 26, 2002

Carolina in the News

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

Current International Coverage

Test moves to on-chip sector
Electronic Times (UK)
A team from Agere Systems, the University of North Carolina and Wright State University
has developed a way of cutting the cost of implementing test logic on chips by moving into 
an on-chip section of programmable logic. Speaking at the Design Automation Conference 
in New Orleans earlier this month, Miron Abramovici, distinguished member of the technical 
staff in the circuits and systems research lab at Agere, said the problem with built-in self-test 
(BIST) and scan test logic is that there is practically no value in it beyond the few times the 
logic gets used during production and test.
http://www.electronicstimes.com/story/OEG20020619S0009

Current National Coverage

Airport Improvements Are Adrift After Sept. 11
The New York Times
At 3 o'clock on a weekday afternoon, there are no fewer than 75 travelers standing before 
the security checkpoint at Raleigh-Durham International Airport here. Proposals to design an 
expansion of the airport, in part to address this bottleneck, are being considered...
..."Critical plans to meet the needs of the 21st century were stopped in their tracks," said John 
D. Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of 
North Carolina. He has made a focus of his career a concept he calls the aerotropolis, arguing 
that airports drive commercial real estate values higher in the way that highways did in the 20th 
century, railroads did in the 19th century and seaports did in the 18th century. "Long-range 
planning," he said, "has stopped." 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/26/business/26AIRP.html
(Note: The New York Times requires free registration to access articles.)

New A&M leader pledges an upgrade 
San Antonio Express-News (Texas)
Robert Gates, Texas A&M University's incoming president, said Friday his top priority at the 
flagship institution will be to oversee an ambitious, long-range plan to make it one of the nation's 
10 best public universities...
...In many instances, the "Vision 2020" plan compares Texas A&M to six other institutions — 
University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of California at Los 
Angeles, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of California at San Diego and 
University of Wisconsin at Madison — all of which are ranked among the nation's 10 best public 
institutions by the most prominent ranking systems.
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=738899&xld=320

U. Expert: Moderate Activity Is Heart Boost
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) 
A Utah fitness expert has good news for those not interested in Iron Man exercise routines or 
long workouts but who still want to protect themselves from a heart attack...
...In the study, LaMonte and researchers from the University of South Carolina and the 
University of North Carolina compared the fitness readings of 135 black, white and American 
Indian women with their blood-test levels of C-reactive protein, a common measure of arterial 
inflammation. 
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/jun/06252002/utah/748272.htm

National News Notes

Paul Jones, director of ibiblio.org and clinical associate professor in both the School of 
Journalism and Mass Communication and the School of Information and Library Science, 
was featured Friday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" about the recent Library 
of Congress ruling which forces Internet radio stations to pay royalties to musicians and record 
companies for the right to play music online. ibiblio.org is a conservancy of freely available 
information, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural 
studies. It is a collaboration of the Center for the Public Domain and The University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To listen to the program, visit 
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=6%2F21%2F2002&PrgID=3 
and scroll down the page. 

State and Local Coverage

UNC-CH plans worry neighbors 
People watched and listened last year as property owners on the south side of town tried 
unsuccessfully to keep UNC-Chapel Hill from muscling past the main campus borders into an 
established tree-lined residential community. Now the owners and renters of Elkin Hills, a 
1950s-style neighborhood near the center of town, are girding for a similar battle over the 
university's 975-acre Horace Williams tract, a satellite property where the next wave of campus 
growth could occur.
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1491167p-1521730c.html

Town asks for close look at UNC waste site
The Chapel Hill Town Council has asked for a full report on a toxic waste site on the university's 
Horace Williams property. The council Monday responded to a petition from Bob Epting, Julie 
McClintock and Dan Coleman asking that the town request a full briefing on the site from the 
university, including an inventory of buried wastes and plans for the cleanup. Town Manager 
Cal Horton said staff members would look into the petition and bring more information back to 
the council, but that would not likely happen until August. 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/06/26/news08.html

Town stands firm on South Columbia Street
With little discussion Monday, the Town Council unanimously voted not to ask the state 
Department of Transportation to study widening South Columbia Street. Despite a concerted 
push from university and UNC Healthcare representatives, town officials remained unconvinced 
that adding travel lanes to two-lane South Columbia Street are needed. 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/06/26/news05.html

Town turns down Columbia Street study
The Town Council has rejected joining UNC in asking for a state traffic study that could reopen 
the possibility of a major widening of South Columbia Street. Instead, the nine council members 
voted unanimously this week to ask the N.C. Department of Transportation to forge ahead with 
an existing plan to add sidewalks, bike lanes and turn lanes to Chapel Hill’s southern entranceway. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-241187.html

Northside asks town for help
Northside residents are holding Town Council members' feet to the fire to stop more student 
housing from being built and taking over their single-family neighborhood. "The pressures are 
just mounting and growing," said Estelle Mabry, a longtime Northside resident. "What's being 
built is totally outrageous and doesn't fit the neighborhood." 
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/Issues/2002/06/26/news02.html

Mark of the cheater (Commentary)
If you graduated from high school or college in a year ending in 2, you probably have been invited 
to 2002's inevitable class reunion. There is something about "Big 0" anniversaries that infects 
former class officers with reunion fever...
...That's why UNC-Chapel Hill will be doing the right thing if it puts some much-needed teeth in 
the campus Honor Code. Current violations of the code -- which says you will neither give nor 
receive help on any academic work, including tests and research papers -- are, upon conviction 
by the Honor Court, now punished with a failing grade and a one-semester suspension. A 
student's official transcript records the grade but not the cheating that caused it.
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/1491166p-1521721c.html

Canine lovers enjoy a ruff day at the office
Charlotte Observer
The dogs took over the board room Friday at Ulysses Learning in Mooresville, and bones and 
water bowls replaced the usual coffee and pastries. At Charlotte's Progressive Software Inc., basset 
hounds coexisted peacefully with spaniels and so did workers. For the fourth year in a row, canine-
loving workers in North America celebrated "Take-your-dog-to-work day," created by Pet Sitters 
International to encourage pet adoption and to celebrate the human-animal bond...
..."It's bizarre," said Dick Blackburn, a professor of organizational behavior at UNC Chapel Hill's 
Kenan-Flagler Business School. "I don't see the rationale."
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/3521313.htm

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Proposed budget cuts deemed dangerous 
State officials said Tuesday that the Senate's proposed $14.2 billion budget would require hundreds 
more layoffs than originally thought and would cut so deeply into prisons and psychiatric hospitals 
as to threaten public safety and patient welfare.
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1491032p-1521733c.html

State health plan to stick with AdvancePCS 
Leaders of the state health plan have agreed to continue doing business with AdvancePCS, the 
company that manages state employees' prescription drug benefit, to secure the company's promise 
to pay back $24 million the state says it was overcharged. The deal includes no remedy to mollify 
pharmacies reeling from what they say was an unannounced cut last month in what AdvancePCS 
pays them to fill state health plan members' prescriptions. 
http://newsobserver.com/business/story/1491073p-1521688c.html

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, 
please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, 
(919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or mike_mcfarland@unc.edu