May 1, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

International

Two Good: New chemistry turns coal into clean diesel
The Economic Times (Gurgaon, Haryana)
Call it the coal-to-liquid technology. This could be one of those technological breakthroughs that energy dependent countries like India could look forward to in their quest for energy security. ... Rutgers University chemist Alan Goldman co-developed the process, called Alkane Metathesis, with Maurice Brookhart, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina.
Related Link: http://www.kfdx.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=11713
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr06/brookhart041106.htm

National

For when a doctor and a nurse just aren't enough
The Boston Globe
The most valuable asset for coping with today's medical system may be an adult family member -- preferably one who is well educated, tactful, feisty, and unemployed. ... And at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jo Anne Earp is creating a set of courses to teach patient advocacy as a career.

With Movie Due, 'Da Vinci' Debate Persists
The Associated Press (National)
A line from Dan Brown's ''The Da Vinci Code'' tells you why it's easily the most disputed religious novel of all time: ''Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.'' ... Bart Ehrman, religion chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, likens the phenomenon to the excitement in the 19th century when deluded masses thought Jesus would return in 1844.

Former Alabama governor goes on trial as he campaigns for old job
The Associated Press (National)
Former Gov. Don Siegelman enters federal court Monday for trial on bribery and political corruption charges that attempt to show he abused his powers in schemes with ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy and two of his Cabinet members. ... Thad Beyle, political science professor at the University of North Carolina, said Siegelman's predicament is unique.

Regional

A walk-on worships the Tar Heels
The State (Columbia, S.C.)
March Madness, the month-long NCAA hoops tournament, recently concluded with Florida’s championship win over UCLA. The annual frenzy invariably spawns basketball books. Fred Hobson, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, weighs in with an engaging memoir about his lifelong Tar Heel fanaticism. His book makes a nice companion to Will Blythe’s recently published account of the Duke-UNC basketball rivalry, “To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever.”

State & Local Coverage

UNC's Kenan-Flagler ranks high in BusinessWeek list
The Triangle Business Journal
Only one Triangle university made BusinessWeek magazine's Top 50 Undergraduate Business Schools rankings. The Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill came in 11th place.

Hispanics bolster state’s economy
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Hispanic residents play an important, positive role in the state’s economy, a UNC Chapel Hill management professor said a few days before pro-immigration rallies scheduled in Asheville and around the country today. The state’s Hispanic population of just more than 600,000 contributed more than $9 billion to the state’s economy in 2004, according to a study released earlier this year that James Johnson Jr. co-authored.

UNC class combines art with business
Chapel Hill Herald
UNC senior James Alsop skipped three weeks of class to work and dance in L.A. He had a part on a Fox reality competition, "So You Think You Can Dance?" and landed an audition for Janet Jackson. One of his professors, Elliot McGucken, was just fine with his absence from class.

Another perspective on South Elm
News & Record (Greensboro)
It's a tall order to turn a blighted neighborhood like South Elm Street into an attractive community and make a profit doing it. Three teams of graduate planning students from UNC-Chapel Hill offered a glimpse Friday of the big challenges facing companies that may take on the project. Greensboro is still a couple of months away from presenting a final report on its own recommendations.

Parents, talk to kids about sex -- or somebody else will
The Charlotte Observer
Derrick Vaccaro says he first heard about sex when he was 8 years old. ... A UNC Chapel Hill study released this month found that teens who were exposed to sexually charged music, magazines, movies and TV were about twice as likely to have intercourse by 16 as those with less exposure.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htm

Teenage drinking on the decline
The Charlotte Observer
Despite several high-profile cases, drinking among teenagers across the Carolinas and the nation has dropped dramatically over the past two decades. ... "Bad as it may seem, it's not nearly so big a problem as everyone thinks it is," said Robert Foss, senior research scientist at UNC Chapel Hill's Highway Research Safety Center. "And it's much less a problem than it was 20 years ago."

UNC hosts its first 'lavender graduation'
The Chapel Hill Herald
Since entering UNC as a freshman in 2002, Alex Ferrando has seen many advances in the campus culture for gay and lesbian students. ... Today, though, marks another advance. The campus is hosting its first "Lavender Graduation," a commencement ceremony for graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer students, their allies, and sexuality studies minors.

Learning the ropes at UNC's daddy boot camp
The Chapel Hill News
Tom Maltais laid his baby daughter on the floor to change her wet diaper and explained the process step-by-step to Randy Younts like Emeril walks an audience through a recipe. ... On a recent Saturday, Younts, from Durham, got over his fears when he and half a dozen other expectant dads gathered for daddy boot camp at UNC Hospitals, where they learned not only about diapers, but also how to feed a baby and, most importantly, how to keep mama happy.

What's going on
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Edward D. Salmon, a professor of cell biology, and Christopher R. Browning, a professor of history specializing in the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, have been elected 2006 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for contributions to their fields and to society. ... Michael A. Stegman, a professor of public policy, planning and business, was honored by his peers with the Thomas Jefferson Award.
UNC News Releases: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr06/academy042606.htm
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr06/stegman042606.htm

Students' favorites awarded
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Which professors do UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate students like most? According to the 2006 Student Undergraduate Teaching Awards, there are three, plus one staff member and six teaching assistants.

Stray remarks can hurt job searches
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Bloggers and other Internet exhibitionists should heed this Miranda warning of employment: Anything you say can and will be used against you. ... UNC-Chapel Hill's career office warns students embarking on their careers to clean up their public images

Parenting guru is revered, reviled
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
From a hollow where some residents still drive horse-drawn carts to church, Pastor Michael Pearl teaches hundreds of thousands of parents strategies for rearing submissive, obedient children. ... Twenty-five percent of the more than 1,400 North and South Carolina parents surveyed whip with an instrument. Almost 3.5 percent said they spank with an instrument on places other than the buttocks. Desmond Runyan, chairman of social medicine at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and author of the report, deems such methods abusive.

Local voices enrich oral history project
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Arnold Oh has known Tom Rankin for about two years but until recently, their conversations have been limited to the basketball court. ... And that's how Rankin, 49, and Oh, 32, ended up in a soundproof recording booth in a mobile studio parked at American Tobacco Tuesday afternoon. The two men had signed up to interview each other as part of the StoryCorps project, an initiative allowing people across the country to share and record their stories.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/storycorpsadvance031506.htm

Attempted Assault Reported Near UNC Dorm
WRAL (Raleigh)
Officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are warning students and staff to take extra safety precautions after a report of an attempted sexual assault near a UNC dorm early Friday morning.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr06/assault042806.htm

Built from the basement up
The Triangle Business Journal
To be certain, there were creatures growing in the basement of UNC's business school in the summer of 2001, but none as quickly as Ron Unger's fledgling company. What had began just months earlier as Unger's entry into an entrepreneurial competition at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School had morphed seemingly overnight into a living, breathing business.

Issues & Trends

Duke, UNC graduations merge with Mother's Day for 'perfect storm'
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Scott Howell probably won't see his mother on Mother's Day. As owner and chef at Nana's restaurant in Durham, a normally busy day will be even busier this year, when Mother's Day again collides with graduations at Duke and UNC.

Airpark locals look forward to getting up
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A 41-lot neighborhood anchored by an airplane runway has been cleared for landing on the border of Orange and Alamance counties. ... Levin said the airpark will not be a replacement for UNC-Chapel Hill's Horace Williams Airport. The university wants to close the airport off Estes Drive Extension so it can proceed with plans for the Carolina North research campus.

Sex trafficking
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Last month, on a dead-end street in southwest Raleigh, police officers raided a small but bustling brothel.Neighbors described cars coming and going throughout the days and nights; police found 75 to 100 condom wrappers in trash bags at the curb and 132 unused condoms in the flat-roofed house. ... Just this month, the issue was the topic of a conference sponsored by the Women's Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Related Links: http://www.newsobserver.com/164/story/434132.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/164/story/434129.html

Solemn promise (Editorial)
The News & Observer
It is a profound step, indeed. "Pack Promise," a program to help low-income students attend N.C. State University, through loans and grants and campus jobs that will touch upon their majors. If NCSU is to be in an elite group of universities, this is one to which it should belong. Fewer than 15 schools nationwide have similar programs. One of them is UNC-Chapel Hill's Carolina Covenant.

Election dispute resolved
The Daily Dispatch (Henderson, N.C.)
Both sides pronounced themselves pleased by the results of an unusual Saturday morning courtroom showdown between an incumbent county commissioner and the Warren County Political Action Committee. But the resulting ruling didn't fully satisfy at least two candidates who attended the session. ... Warrenton attorney T.T. Clayton, is employed by the University of North Carolina's Center for Civil Rights but said her work for the PAC was not related to her job at the center.

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.

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