June 16, 2005

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Republican Strains Emerge Over Iraq
The Wall Street Journal
As bad news continues to emerge from Iraq and the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, some Republicans are starting to edge away from the White House on its policies in the war on terror....Richard Kohn, a University of North Carolina professor who studies presidential-leadership issues in wartime, says that while Mr. Bush won re-election in large part because of his image as commander in chief, "war was always a potential trap for him." He adds: "You've got Republican grandees in the Senate who probably aren't willing to put up with this much longer."

Jump-starting the start-ups
The Arizona Republic
In the race to develop new technology-based products, the Valley lags years behind other parts of the country....Big prizes for the competitions are not always the best way to encourage students, said Patrick Vernon, (associate director at the Kenan-Flagler Business School) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

Officials plan visits to other universities
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Local business, political and university leaders will head to Ann Arbor, Mich., and Madison, Wis., as early as this year to learn how those college towns manage growth....UNC-Chapel Hill is planning a satellite research campus, Carolina North. Officials project that the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro will grow from 68,000 people now to as many as 100,000 in 20 years.

Leaders to visit college city peers
The Chapel Hill Herald
A handful of college towns in the Midwest and Southeast are being considered by a new civic leadership group that wants to learn from the successes and failures of comparable communities....In addition, the council hopes to visit towns that either have or are planning a major research park, as Chapel Hill may be facing with UNC's Carolina North proposal.

Mayor and council member square off over Dec. e-mail
The Charlotte Observer
An Indian Trail Town Council meeting ended in a heated exchange this week between Mayor Sandy Moore and council member Mercedes Cass after Cass questioned Moore about an e-mail Moore sent in December....David Lawrence, a professor at UNC Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, said sending an informational e-mail to council members was fine, but an e-mail requesting a decision could violate North Carolina's open meetings law.

Conference on dementia was outstanding
The Fayetteville Observer
Special kudos to the staff at Mid-Carolina Area Agency on Aging for their annual Caregiver Education Conference held June 2....Keynote speaker Dr. Frank Longo, professor and chairman of the University of North Carolina Department of Neurology, gave updates on dementia diagnosis and treatments.

Being overweight can cause problems
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Few dispute that America has a weight problem. How big that problem is -- and who should be worried -- remains a subject of intense debate....Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a licensed, registered dietitian and author. She holds a doctorate in health policy and administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Public Health.

Investing in hope
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Kristen McSwain is training to run in a charity half marathon and plans to raise money at local festivals this fall. She has hit up her friends and relatives so many times she feels guilty....R. Jude Samulski, director of the Gene Therapy Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, said he gets about 60 letters a week from parents who say they refuse to just sit home and watch their children die. Recently, he co-founded a privately held company, Asklepios, to help translate the decades of research he and others have done into a gene therapy drug he can give to Duchenne parents.

Issues & Trends

Bad News for Wait-Listed Students
The Wall Street Journal
Students still hoping to get off the admissions wait list at some of the country's top colleges may want to start settling on their safe school....But in the end, some of those schools wound up being unexpectedly stingy in admitting wait-listed students. The reason: Many admissions officers were caught off-guard by the large number of students who accepted offers of admission made earlier in the spring.

Research campus gets seed money
The State (S.C.)
Construction could begin by the end of the year on the largest expansion of USC in recent history, now that state officials have freed up $58 million for the school's "research campus." The State Budget and Control Board gave final approval Tuesday to the expansion - a key part of USC's goal to enhance its research profile while helping attract high-tech companies to the Midlands.

N.C. House approves $17.1 billion budget in early-morning vote
The Associated Press (N.C.)
The House approved early Thursday a $17.1 billion spending plan for next year that restored Medicaid cuts in the Senate budget and added 25 cents per pack to the nation's lowest cigarette tax....The budget also pays for expected public school, university and community college campus enrollment increases, although University of North Carolina officials complained that the plan is $12.7 million short for distance learning programs.

New raise proposal would aid lower-paid state workers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A late push for a different sort of pay raise for state employees would provide more money to the lowest-paid workers at the expense of the highly paid.
House members approved an amendment by Rep. Linda Coleman, a Knightdale Democrat, to give employees a flat raise of $1,086 a year. It replaced a proposal of 2.5 percent or $500 for employees, whichever is more.

Chapel Hill passes ordinance curbing lawn equipment use
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
If you're a Chapel Hill lawn buff champing at the bit to start mowing, blowing and trimming Saturday morning, you'll have to cool those engines until 9 a.m....Nonresidential users, i.e. UNC-Chapel Hill, can use the equipment starting at 4 a.m. weekdays so long as the work is done 100 feet or more from the nearest residence.

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.