June 29, 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

Shelby Foote, Historian and Novelist, Dies at 88
The New York Times
Shelby Foote, the historian whose incisive, seasoned commentary - delivered in a drawl so mellifluous that one critic called it "molasses over hominy" - evoked the Civil War for millions in the 11-hour PBS documentary in 1990, died on Monday at a Memphis hospital. ...At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he wrote short stories and poems for the campus literary magazine before dropping out in 1937 without taking a degree.
Related Link: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Obit-Foote.html

State & Local Coverage

Moeser in Singapore, Thailand touting UNC
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Chancellor James Moeser will spend the next three days in Singapore and Thailand, promoting the university's role in that corner of the world.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun05/singaporebangkok062705.htm

Our university, or UNC-PAC's? (Editorial)
The Wilmington Star
The University of North Carolina is supposed to be run by its Board of Governors, not by alumni who raise hundreds of thousands to give "campaign contributions" to politicians.

Furniture of champions
The Chapel Hill News
A dozen stacks of 4-by-8 floor panels stand 20 feet tall. Several individual pieces, prominently displaying the distinctive paint lines of a basketball court, are propped against the larger piles. ...But long-time friends and avid basketball fans Jack Stutts, associate professor of medicine at UNC, and Richard Wheeler, a medical doctor at Duke University's urgent care clinic, came up with an idea.

Gaston defends Ten Commandments
The Charlotte Observer
Gaston County commissioners Chairman Tom Keigher said Tuesday if the courts want the county to remove its Ten Commandments display, they'll have to send state police to do it. ..."The unfortunate thing about the court's decision is that it's so contextual," said Bill Marshall, law professor at UNC Chapel Hill. "Any particular case is going to have to be reviewed by very case-specific findings."

Guilford commissioners soon to top state's pay scale
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Guilford County soon will have the highest-paid commissioners in the state. ...(The new salary) would surpass the $19,307 salary for commissioners in Mecklenburg County, which had the highest salary in 2005 according to a survey by the University of North Carolina School of Government.

Issues & Trends

Higher salary urged for new UNC president
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Hooking the best candidate for the top job in the state's university system will take some serious bait -- about $500,000 a year, a consultant has told the UNC Board of Governors. That would be a 60 percent pay increase -- nearly $200,000 more than what retiring University of North Carolina system President Molly Broad makes.

Bill to let UNC sell goods gets opposition
The Chapel Hill Herald
A local business lobby is organizing opposition to a bill now before the N.C. Senate that would widen UNC's exemption from the state law that bars public agencies from competing with private-sector businesses.

Alderman Chilton plans to run for mayor of Carrboro
The Chapel Hill Herald
With the electoral filing season ready to open the end of this week, a Carrboro alderman announced Tuesday that he'll run for mayor, two Chapel Hill town councilwomen said they'll step down and a city school board member announced her re-election bid.

Let's bring a grocery store back downtown (Commentary)
The Chapel Hill News
My son and I lived on Clark Court in downtown Chapel Hill 25 years ago, between Church Street and Pritchard Avenue, in a tiny mill house surrounded by a bamboo forest. ...(Speaking of UNC, the new Carolina North campus will also need a small grocery store.

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.