November 8, 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

Pre-Pregnancy Multivitamins Prevent Prematurity
Reuters International Wire Service
Women who take multivitamins before becoming pregnant are less likely to give birth to premature babies, new study findings suggest....According to the research, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, women who took multivitamins before conceiving were half as likely to deliver their babies before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

Cheerleading can damage your health
The Sunday Times (U.K.)
Cheerleaders, those queens of the American high school, are paying for their power and popularity in broken bones. New research says the girls in short skirts are more likely to be injured than the footballers they cheer on....As a result, according to research from the University of North Carolina, nearly 25,000 cheerleaders went to hospital last year....Frank Mueller, director of the university's national centre for catastrophic sports injury research, said cheerleaders used to face nothing worse than twisted ankles.

National Coverage

Anticancer Diet
Time
Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is sound advice for anyone, but according to a new study in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, it may be particularly valuable for older women....The University of North Carolina epidemiologists who led the study say leafy greens and colorful vegetables like carrots, squash, tomatoes and peppers, which are rich in lycopene and beta carotene, are especially potent cancer fighters.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct04/gammon102704.html

America improves health, but risks growing
CNN
The average resident of Minnesota stands a better chance of avoiding smoking, car accidents and obesity than a friend living 900 miles to the south in Tennessee....The study is overseen by a panel of public health specialists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Bush expected to press for overhaul of tax code
The Chicago Tribune
President Bush has signaled he wants to produce a major overhaul of the federal tax code in his second term rather than just tinkering around the edges--an ambition likely to be extremely challenging....Edward Maydew, accounting professor and director of the University of North Carolina's Tax Center, said Bush in his first term signaled that he wants to tilt the tax system more toward taxing consumption. Lower taxes on dividends and capital gains are prime examples, he said.

Kids in peril
San Antonio Express-News
Adolescents who get little physical activity are likely to become adults who get little physical activity, too. That's the conclusion of a study out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

TAKS scores prompt inquiry at Dallas-area school
The Dallas Morning News
On this year's third-grade TAKS reading test, an unlikely school finished No. 1 in the state...."This large of a gain is highly improbable due simply to improved instruction," Gregory Cizek, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a national expert on cheating, told the newspaper.

State & Local Coverage

Connecting Carolina with Asheville High
Asheville City Schools
Shannon Baggett's Biology students became forensic scientists on Wednesday using a high tech DNA lab to help solve the "Case of the Crown Jewels." Each helped analyze a drop of "blood" via DNA fingerprinting to ID the suspect, in an exercise led by UNC-Chapel Hill biology professor, Dr. Skip Bollenbacher.
Note: A related story aired on WLOS-TV.

Destiny at KMHS
The Star (Shelby)
Turning science into a race, students at Kings Mountain High School learned how to perform tasks required for one of the most cutting-edge jobs available today - biotechnologist - and had a taste of Destiny....Destiny, UNC-Chapel Hill's traveling science learning program, is housed on a 40-foot, 33,000-pound bus. Equipped with computers and laboratory equipment, the mobile science lab has served more than 104 school systems in 95 counties and 250 schools across the
state.

UNC breaks ground on Global Education Center
The Chapel Hill News
The University of North Carolina will celebrate breaking ground for a new Global Education Center at 1 p.m. Friday in the Old Well Ballroom of the Carolina Inn.

On the Move
The Charlotte Observer
UNC Chapel Hill ranks as the nation's top university for fostering entrepreneurship across campus, according to The Princeton Review and Forbes.com. UNC also ranked fifth among the 25 most-connected campuses in a separate ranking that measured the technological capabilities of the country's best schools and cutting-edge campuses.
Note: A brief appeared in today's The News & Observer but is not available online.

UNC's Baddour portrayed unfairly (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer
The Oct. 29 [Caulton Tudor] column regarding Carolina Director of Athletics Dick Baddour was a one-sided and incomplete picture of the man and the job he has done leading the Tar Heel program. I find it very disappointing that columnists and the reporting media are spending so much time on speculation, when there is so much rich academic and athletic news to report....Richard "Stick" Williams The letter-writer is chairman of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees.

Roses & raspberries, Nov. 3
The Chapel Hill News
Raspberries to rumor assassins who have running a stealth campaign to get rid of Dick Baddour as athletics director at UNC.

Athletes reach out to ailing kids through new program at UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Just 6 years old, Colton Butcher was the smallest player on the field....Colton's field of dreams was the product of a new program at UNC called Carolina Dreams. The program allows patients from the North Carolina Children's Hospital to attend UNC sporting events and meet some of the school's athletes.

How did health care fare
The Charlotte Observer
The 2004 elections are over. Some politicians won, and some lost. Let's not talk about them....Dean Harris, a UNC Chapel Hill clinical associate professor of public health policy, calls himself a skeptic. But he's hopeful about the future.

On the show
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
How The South Went Red: Melinda Penkava hosts a conversation on the political history and fortunes of the South....Guests include: Ferrell Guillory, director of the
Program for Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill....
Note: This story aired on Friday, Nov. 5, but can be accessed online.

Business as usual
The News & Observer
President George W. Bush's extended lease on the White House could prove a boon to Highwoods Properties of Raleigh...."It's the only chance the president has to really make things happen," said James F. Smith, an economist at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Issues & Trends

UNC, RTI team up to woo military
The News & Observer
The University of North Carolina system and RTI International are pursuing a partnership with the Pentagon, defense contractors and others to create a potentially vast industry for the state: biotechnology-related military products.

Wolfe's campus reminds some of Duke
The News & Observer
The scene is elite Dupont University, a Gothic playground for lusty, beer-gulping, basketball-obsessed college students from the upper crust of American society....He consulted several faculty members at UNC-CH who study sex, the media and the anthropology of college students....One of the UNC-CH professors, Connie Eble, is an expert on college slang.

Panel favors MLK Blvd
The News & Observer
Airport Road should be changed to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a citizens committee decided Saturday, though some steps should be taken to address opponents' concerns.
Related links: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/front/story/1806493p-8103774c.html
http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-541335.html

Figures, feasibility shift on downtown project
The Chapel Hill News
Council members will have plenty to chew on before deciding Monday whether to begin soliciting developers to turn lot 5 and the top of Wallace Deck into residential and retail hubs.

Grief fueled mother's odyssey
The News & Observer
On Tuesday, Rabah Samara, 27, is scheduled to stand trial on felony hit-and-run charges....In the months after her son's death, Pat Gates tried to heal. One thing that made her feel better was connecting with Stephen's world. So the family established a scholarship at UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where Stephen graduated in 1998.

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.