 |
June 21, 2006
Carolina in the News
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:International Coverage
Pomelo can boost drug effects
Sun Star (Philippines)
The cheaper way to treat a disease is to use a drug strong enough to destroy the organisms causing it. ... In the study led by Paul Watkins, a group of substances known as furanocoumarins found in grapefruits (Citrus maxima), boosted the said drugs’ effect on our body. (Watkins is director of the General Clinical Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.)
National Coverage
A steady media diet: Gulp
The Dallas Morning News
Millions of parents allow strangers to enter their kids' bedrooms every day, showing sons and daughters the apparent norms of violence, sex, drug use and consumer purchasing. ... Children going through puberty develop an intense curiosity about sex, and if parents and schools aren't supplying information, kids will seek knowledge elsewhere, says Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htmBreast-feeding advocates hail Dallas mom's video series
The Dallas Morning News
When Stephanie Scholz Neurohr was about to have her seventh child, a camera crew stood ready in her hospital room. ... "That's a shame for a developed country like ourselves," says Dr. Miriam Labbok, director of the Center for Infant and Young Child Feeding and Care at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health.
Lawmakers increasingly heading back to home states
The Hill (D.C.)
Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) is drawing flak from national Democrats for saying in a months-old New York Times article that the Senate is “too slow for me” and that he could do much more when he was a governor. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has made it plain that “Bored George Allen” is going to keep hearing about it. ... “[Congress] has slowed in recent years,” said Thad Beyle, a gubernatorial expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “But a lot of what is going on is going on at the state level now because the states, beginning in the mid-’60s, began to clean up their act and had federal programs to help them do that.”
State & Local Coverage
Finding a forgotten Founding Father
The Charlotte Observer
William R. Davie is best known for establishing the University of North Carolina in 1793, making it the nation's first state university to open two years later. If you went to UNC-Chapel Hill, you probably also know about the Davie Poplar, the landmark tree near the center campus. But to most people, Davie is just another guy in a powdered wig who did "something" way back when.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun06/daviehouse061306.htmThe house that Love built
The Chapel Hill News
A nearly 120-year-old Franklin Street home that once housed a UNC icon is being renovated as the new home for the university's Center for the Study of the American South. The house at 410 E. Franklin St. was built around 1887 by James Lee Love, a math professor, and his wife, June Spencer Love.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jun06/lovehutchins061506.htmAIDS in North Carolina
"The State of Things," WUNC-FM
Tom Linden, professor of medical journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, speaks with Evelyn Foust and Dr. Peter Leone, associate professor of medicine at UNC, with the STD and AIDs branch of the North Carolina Division of Public Health, and with Justin Smith, project coordinator of Strength Through Youth Livin' Empowered, about what's changed in the state's struggle with HIV/AIDS in the past 25 years.
House will be home for UNC patients' families
The Chapel Hill News
In the last year of his life, Bert Brooks Jr. and his wife, Gina, drove the three and a half hours from their home in Beaufort to Chapel Hill at least 20 times. ... Last week, UNC Hospitals broke ground on SECU Family House, a 43,000-square-foot facility next to the Ronald McDonald House on Old Mason Farm Road.
Voting Rights Act up for vote in House
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Long after the literacy tests and poll taxes of the Jim Crow South have faded into memory, the House of Representatives is set today to vote on another 25-year extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. ... The preclearance requirement makes local officials think about how they're ensuring that minority voters can elect their choices, said Anita Earls, of the UNC Center for Civil Rights in Chapel Hill, who testified about the act at a congressional hearing this spring.
King of B moves
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Lyle Estill, a Canadian transplant-turned-entrepreneur, has hit a 21st century trifecta: His bets on biofuels, blogs and blooks all seem to be paying off. ... That's an impressive audience in the blog world, says UNC-Chapel Hill professor Paul Jones, an Internet pioneer. And it's an engaged group of readers, he says: "I firmly believe and I see from Lyle's blog that his blog readers act as editors, fact checkers, [and] a support system."
Series examines Hispanic impact
The Asheville Citizen-Times
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, in conjunction with N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry and N.C. Bankers Association, will conduct a series of luncheon gatherings to be held across the state this summer and fall, including an Asheville gathering in September. ... Each session will include a review by one of the co-authors of “The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on the State of North Carolina,” by John D. Kasarda and James H. Johnson Jr. of the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise of the Kenan Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill, and a panel discussion of the implications of the data presented in the Kenan Institute research.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htmReport: Many have no access to psychiatric care
The Asheville Citizen-Times
Mental health reform was supposed to bring more choices to people who need services, but many people with serious mental illness are waiting weeks or months to see a psychiatrist, and some have lost psychiatric care altogether, according to a recent report. ... Another study, by UNC-Chapel Hill, showed that between 1999 and 2005, about two-thirds of North Carolina counties either lost psychiatrists or had no psychiatrists. In Western North Carolina, 10 of 18 counties either lost psychiatrists or had none.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/reportpsychiatrist031406.htmArts center's estimated price rises
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
... City General Services Director Mark Greenspan made the decision to replace Turner and turned to Skanska in part because the Swedish firm's U.S. arm has a strong reputation for being able to analyze blueprints and find mistakes. It also had good references thanks to a portfolio of projects that includes the Southpoint mall, several buildings at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, and the city of Raleigh's planned convention center.
Playwrights of the round table
The Chapel Hill News
Carrboro is a long way from Hollywood, which may be either a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view. ... The Roundtable, The ArtsCenter's in-residence playwrights group, will team with actors from UNC's professional actors' training program to present "The Roundtable Goes to Hollywood," a selection of staged readings of short plays in development.
You won't need utensils to dig into Ethiopian food (Commentary)
The Charlotte Observer
In some restaurants, it's OK to share a plate of food and eat with your fingers. It's the tradition you'll experience when you go out for Ethiopian food, where meals are served on a communal platter and food is scooped up with bits of injera, a delicious, spongy flatbread. ... Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy at UNC.
Wasteful mandate (Letter to the editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Your June 13 editorial regarding mandatory eye exams for children ("Focus on repeal") was right on target. As a pediatric ophthalmologist who has been caring for children for 30-plus years, I concur that the mandate should be repealed. Such exams are a wasteful expenditure of health care dollars and a burden on parents. ... John D. Wright Jr., M.D., Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Pediatrics, UNC School of Medicine.
Run-down case back in court
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At his first court appearance in March after his arrest on charges of trying to run down UNC-Chapel Hill students, Mohammed Taheri-Azar told a judge he didn't want an attorney. But the judge appointed one to be on the safe side.
Related Links: http://www.wwaytv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=5058195&nav=menu70_2
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/2964922p-9399728c.htmIssues & Trends
Quick Takes: House Panel Approves NSF Increase, Dollars for Athletes in N.C., Harvard Still Waiting for $115M Gift, Dartmouth’s Alumni Wars
Inside Higher Ed
Legislation in North Carolina that passed based on claims that it would help the state recruit top students is actually helping pay the tuition of out-of-state athletes at the University of North Carolina system, The Raleigh News & Observer reported.
WSSU program for freshmen to get makeover
The Winston-Salem Journal
Within the UNC system, UNC-Chapel Hill has the highest rate - 81.3 percent of students who began in 1998 graduated six years later, according to a 2005 report. Fayetteville State University has the lowest rate at 34.9 percent. WSSU's rate was 43.7 percent.
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.