June 27, 2002

Carolina in the News

State and Local Coverage

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

Petition urges UNC to remove chemicals 
Environmentalists and a local attorney have asked the Town Council to pressure UNC to clean 
out a chemical dump on the edge of the Horace Williams tract. The request, filed earlier week, 
urges the town to get in touch with state and federal regulators and secure copies of all university 
documents about the wastes that are buried in the site. 
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-241623.html

Word Up (Letter to the Editor)
Winston-Salem Journal
In response to those who are offended by the new reading requirement at the University of North 
Carolina, the ridiculous and ignorant statements in Angelyn B. Eller's letter to the editor show why 
the rising generation should be educated about Islam ("Required Reading," June 15). Islam is one 
of the fastest-growing religions in the world. As countries become increasingly interconnected and 
immigration rates increase, anyone who hopes to compete in business or politics or who hopes 
simply to get along with his neighbors will need to have some familiarity with Islam...
http://www.journalnow.com/wsj/opinion/MGBBXDGKX2D.html
(Note: The Winston-Salem Journal publishes all letters to the editor on the same web page. To 
view this letter, please scroll down the page.)

Never-ending education 
Some kids hang out in parks or lounge around the pool for fun. When Tom Sawyer was a boy, 
his playground was a college campus. Sawyer would sit on the steps of the library at the University 
of Michigan at Ann Arbor and listen to summer concerts. Or zoom across the grounds on his bike. 
Sometimes he and friends played football in the grassy space near the law school. Every inch holds 
a memory. At college, he felt at home...
...At 67, Sawyer signed up for Biology 11, a freshman course, at UNC-Chapel Hill. Armed with 
notebook and pens, he worried about being accepted and finding a lab partner. Still, he made his 
way across campus, opened the door and looked inside...
http://newsobserver.com/features/life/story/1493764p-1524127c.html

Issues and Trends Affecting Carolina

Budget games. . . (Editorial)
It's a game that many of those who run North Carolina's state government departments play, and 
for the most part, they play in order to deliver services that the public needs. When money for one 
area comes up short, department heads sometimes cover the shortage with "lapsed salary" money, 
meaning funds earmarked for positions that are vacant.
http://www.newsobserver.com/editorials/story/1493675p-1524124c.html

Senate Foolishness (Editorial)
Winston-Salem Journal
No matter how much trouble it gets into writing shoddy budgets, the state Senate doesn't seem 
ever to learn. Last week, the Senate changed its budget at the last minute to add a $51 million 
pay raise for teachers. Unfortunately, the senators could not find any real money to pay for it, so
they dreamed some up...
...That wasn't the only time that the Senate leadership looked foolish last week. Sen. Phil Berger, 
a Republican of Eden, maneuvered the Senate into an embarrassing vote on the use of $1 million. 
Berger tried to amend the budget to transfer $1 million designated for the support of the Dean E. 
Smith Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill into a home-health program for 
senior citizens. The Democrats defeated his amendment, thus giving higher priority to the subsidy 
of season-ticket holders than to the state's elderly infirm.
http://www.journalnow.com/wsj/opinion/editorial/MGBK35KSU2D.html

N.C. tech jobs increased 
North Carolina's ailing high-technology industry managed to grow by nearly 2 percent last year, 
realizing a net gain of 2,200 jobs, according to an industry report. And the state continued as one 
of the nation's most robust technology markets -- national high-tech job growth was 1 percent in 
2001 -- in spite of massive layoffs in leading sectors such as telecommunications. The results, culled 
from statistics kept by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, surprised even the report's author, 
AeA, a technology industry organization with dual headquarters in Washington and Silicon Valley.
http://newsobserver.com/business/rtp_nc/story/1493722p-1524066c.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