November 10, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Study Shows More Powerful Heart Drug Helps Blacks
Reuters International Wire Service
An unusual study enrolling only black Americans showed a more powerful statin drug worked better to lower cholesterol than a rival brand, researchers said on Tuesday...."This is a very important study," said Dr. Sidney Smith, a past heart association president and professor at the University of North Carolina.

National Coverage

Diet Drug Helps Patients Maintain Lower Weight
The Wall Street Journal
Researchers reported the first evidence that a highly anticipated experimental weight-loss drug not only helps people slim down, but helps them keep off the pounds
for as long as two years...."The pill is a good partner to get the ball rolling," said Sidney Smith, past president of the AHA and a cardiologist at University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Related links:
USA Today
The Boston Globe
The Associated Press (National)

New Brain Cells Form When Heavy Alcohol Intake Stops, Animal Study Shows
WebMD
Overcoming alcohol addiction can yield a growth spurt of new brain cells, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov04/alcoholabstain110504.html

Dell to build factory in N.C., hire 1,500 workers
USA Today
No. 1 PC maker Dell (DELL) on Tuesday announced plans to build a factory and hire 1,500 workers in an economically hard-hit part of North Carolina....That could be a huge boost to the area, which has been hit by the decline of the tobacco industry and shift of furniture-making plants to China, says business professor Michael Luger at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Trial Opens in SUV Arson
Los Angeles Times
Caltech graduate student William Jensen Cottrell suffers from a form of autism that made him an unwitting dupe in an arson rampage that destroyed or damaged 125 sport utility vehicles in the San Gabriel Valley last year, his defense lawyer told federal court jurors Tuesday....Despite prosecution objections, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner agreed to allow the defense to present testimony from a University of North Carolina psychologist that Cottrell has the illness.

Ashcroft and Evans resign Cabinet posts
Cox News Services
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans resigned on Tuesday, the first Cabinet-level departures as President Bush prepares for a second term...."He has been a lightning rod, and he's probably caused the Bush administration trouble that it wishes would go away," said James Stimson, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

State & Local Coverage

UNC, Duke team up on health
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC and Duke University will team up today for a panel discussion on "What the 2004 Election Means for Health Policy in 2005 and Beyond."

Dell chooses Triad
The News & Observer
The Dell computer company accepted a $242 million package of incentives from the state Tuesday and promised to build a 2,000-worker assembly plant in the Triad....Dell could pay off for the state beyond the 1,500 jobs it plans to create, said Mike Luger, director of the Carolina Center for Competitive Economies at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Attorney: No conflict in a vote
The Charlotte Observer
Hickory city councilmen Bruce Meisner and John Watts III own shares of an office building within a half-block of the site of a proposed Lowe's store -- a development city officials believe will boost property values in the area....Relevant case law is a little clearer, said David Owens, a professor of public law and government at UNC Chapel Hill and author of a book on conflicts of interest in land use matters.

Study war and more
The Chapel Hill News
UNC-Chapel Hill sophomore Rafael Barbosa plays a little soccer for a club team, keeps an ear out for weekend parties and goes to the occasional ballgame.

Events honoring veterans
The News & Observer
The UNC-Chapel Hill Air Force, Army and Navy ROTC units will have their annual Veterans Day ceremony at 2:30 p.m.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov04/rotcandrace110904.html

Issues & Trends

Foreign Enrollment Declines at Universities, Surveys Say
The New York Times
Many of America's top research universities suffered steep declines in foreign student enrollment this fall, according to two new surveys, and alarmed educators
blamed delays in processing American visas as well as increased competition from universities overseas.

Glossy Alumni Magazines Seek More Than Graduates
The New York Times
Their readers may still value the "class notes" most (the Wellesley Magazine section fostered a kidney transplant between graduates), but alumni magazines these days are revamped, glossy and offering an impressive array of more worldly topics. The subjects can be as varied as the educational value of art forgeries or the culture of S.U.V.'s, low-carbohydrate diets or gunshot wounds, the most important man in football or the vanishing young voter.

ACC Basketball
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
The college basketball season gets underway in the next week, and here in North Carolina that means the Atlantic Coast Conference. Host Melinda Penkava spoke today at noon with Lenox Rawlings, sports columnist with the Winston-Salem Journal; and Mick Mixon, color analyst with the Tar Heel Sports Network, about the impact of league expansion on the upcoming season.
Note: This show will rebroadcast tonight at 8.

Smart marriage (Editorial)
The News & Observer
North Carolina's lawmakers ought to approve quickly a request from community colleges and the University of North Carolina system for $6.5 million to encourage joint efforts on the part of those institutions to help them work together. They intend to boost the number of teachers trained for the state's schools, the number of nurses in hospitals, and the number of UNC advisers on community college campuses to help students transfer into the UNC system.

Cameron Ave. changes are on the way
The Chapel Hill Herald
Change is coming to the western stretch of Cameron Avenue in the form of striped bicycle lanes and parking meters.

Chapel Hill work in flux
The News & Observer
No one is ready to put the debate to rest just yet....The Town Council wants more back-and-forth on how to spend $150,000 to improve the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, a historic burial ground where university presidents, senators, governors and famous alumni have been buried alongside many of the African-Americans who built the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

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/newsserv/clipsindex.htm.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.