June 3, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

International News Coverage

Obesity rising among poor in developing world
Reuters International Wire Service
Obesity, once a problem chiefly in the world's richest countries, is increasingly prevalent among poor and less educated women in developing nations, a new study says...."In many poorer nations, obesity has become more prevalent than malnutrition," said Barry Popkin, a nutritionist at the University of North Carolina and one of the study's authors.
UNC release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun04/popkin060204.html

Poor people in poorer countries packing on the pounds
Globe and Mail, Canada
With the economies of the world's poorer countries continuing to grow, so are their citizens' waistlines...."Our new work documents a major shift in the burden of the disease," said Dr. Barry M. Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and one of the study's researchers.

Allah Milaee Jorree -Kamran Shafi (Opinion Editorial)
The Daily Times, Pakistan
The complete Punjabi saying, cruel and insensitive though it is, goes like this: 'Allah milaee jorree, hik annee tae hik korree' which translates as: "A pair made in heaven: one blind, the other a leper"; roughly meaning they are well suited: one as bad as the other....Two nuggets from the American press: Former C-in-C CENTCOM General Anthony Zinni says in his book 'Battle Ready': "In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption." Richard Kohn of the University of North Carolina on Donald Rumsfeld, "... he's often indecisive. He keeps questioning and questioning, and he doesn't provide these people with answers. And they're not sure what his position is. They're not sure what he wants." Familiar, what.

National Coverage

Halting Cancer's Spread
HealthDay News
The ability to switch off a cellular enzyme involved in the progression of several forms of human cancers has been discovered by researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Regional Coverage

Tackling a Big Problem
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The world's waistline is expanding...."What we have seen in the last 15 years has come from nowhere," said Dr. Barry M. Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina schools of public health and medicine.

State & Local Coverage

Black drops plan for unversity projects
The Charlotte Observer
House Co-Speaker Jim Black will drop plans to use a new, hotly debated financing method to pay for five major university building projects....Black's change of heart makes it more likely the borrowing package would pass. State senators want a cancer center at UNC Chapel Hill and a heart and stroke center at East Carolina University.

Help scarce for small businesses
The News & Observer
In 2001, small-business owners asked state legislators for help with one of their biggest financial loads: health insurance. They wanted to allow North Carolina's 261,000 self-employed people to deduct health premiums from their taxes -- just as most larger corporations already could....And the William S. Lee Act provides another major tax break primarily for large businesses. Enacted 10 years ago to stimulate job growth, the credits were worth $79 million last year. According to Michael Luger, head of the economic development office at UNC-Chapel Hill, they're not available to most small businesses.
Note: This is the third article in a series.

Tour aims to reach out to citizens
The Daily Tar Heel
Chancellor James Moeser announced his plans last week to tour the state in order to strengthen the connection between the University and N.C. residents.

Writing section to be on new SAT
Winston Salem Journal
Analogies are to the new SAT as carbohydrates are to trendy diets - eliminated....UNC Chapel Hill currently requires two essays in students' applications, and Lucido said that the essays will continue to play an important part in a student's acceptance to the school.

Fat afflicts the world's poor, too
The News & Observer
As developing countries get richer, they also gain a disease of wealth well known in the United States: obesity. But the irony of abundance is that those most likely to gain excess fat are the poor....In a study released Wednesday, Dr. Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that obesity is quickly becoming more of a problem than undernutrition in Latin America, much of Asia and even sub-Saharan Africa.

Breakthrough Therapy Washes Away Bad Cholesterol
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
When it comes to cholesterol, it is a numbers game. Anything above 200 increases your risk of heart disease. Levels of 300, 400 or higher puts you in the danger zone....."We're looking at people who have LDLs over 300," said Dr. Ross Simpson, director of the University of North Carolina Lipid Clinic.


Kids would stay in safety seats longer in bill passing N.C. Senate
N.C. Associated Press
Children would have to remain in car safety seats until they are older under a bill that has cleared the state Senate, where proponents said it would prevent more injuries and deaths....Children then put the shoulder strap behind them or under their arm, which is very dangerous, said William Hall, a researcher at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. A booster seat raises the child in the rear seat enough for the belt to cross the youth's shoulder.

Ethics policy called clear
Winston Salem Journal
As part of his job at Baptist Hospital, Bob Parker has lobbied Forsyth County officials to spend more money on the Downtown Health Plaza, which Baptist operates....State law says that a conflict of interest exists if a public official owns a company that has a contract with the governing body or has a financial stake in that contract, said David Lawrence, a professor with the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UNC adds two new academic titles
The Chapel Hill Herald
In academia, everyone seems to have a title....UNC took a step towards clarifying all this recently by adding two more honorifics it can now bestow on some of its teachers. New to the fold are the "senior lecturer" and the "professor of the practice," designations intended to make the roles of at least a few people clearer.

Town's, UNC's fortunes tied (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
It is interesting, albeit amusing, to observe the town of Chapel Hill's efforts to run the university. In efforts to control UNC's planning and to eliminate its expansion, the town overlooks the mission of the university, i.e., to serve the people of North Carolina -- not only Chapel Hill. To accomplish this mission for both the present and the future the university quite appropriately has engaged in systematic long-range planning. Its attempts to bring fruition to this planning are scrutinized in detail by the town at almost every turn in endeavors to achieve control.

Issues & Trends

Professors seek better salaries, funding
N.C. Associated Press
Community college professors and their supporters rallied Wednesday in an effort to push lawmakers into paying them more and giving their schools additional money for better equipment....University of North Carolina system and public school teachers' salaries rank near the national average, but their community college counterparts are among the lowest paid in the country.

Group pushes for nonprofit radio in Carrboro
The News & Observer
With an FCC license set to expire at the end of the month, a group of people has been making the rounds through local governments lately to get permits to broadcast all Carrboro, all the time, from 103.5 on the FM radio dial....People in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area already can choose from a variety of local radio stations. WCHL, at 1360 on the AM dial, offers local news, sports and national programming. WXYC, a UNC-Chapel Hill student-run radio station at 89.3 FM, offers a range of music with strong support for local artists and local labels.

Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Russell Campbell at News Services, (919) 962-2091, russell_campbell@unc.edu, or Mike McFarland in University Communications, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu

Past issues of Carolina in the News are located at http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.

Note: Web links on this page are time-sensitive, so stories might not be available after the day they first appeared.