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Nov. 1, 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
As Democrats Lead Opposition, GOP Moderates May Control Vote
The Washington Post
Senate Democrats will lead the opposition to Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s Supreme Court nomination, but a handful of Republican moderates could ultimately decide its outcome, several analysts and lawmakers said yesterday. ..."I think the moderate, or pro-choice, Republicans will likely determine the fate of this nomination," said university of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional expert.
UNC News Tip: http://www.unc.edu/news/newstips/2005/supremetip103105.htmlAlito's views on abortion indicated in '91 case
Newsday
In February 1991, newly minted federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito sat in judgment of a case that some thought would soon end a woman's legal right to abortion. ... Michael Gerhardt, who teaches constitutional law at the University of North Carolina, said Alito seemed to take a somewhat moderate approach in the abortion case, at least compared to some other potential nominees.
Battle for the court begins
The Christian Science Monitor
For activists spoiling for war over the Supreme Court, President Bush has just delivered. ..."This shows that President Bush prizes legal philosophy above all else," says Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Samuel Alito: Another Nominee, Another Fight
National Public Radio
The nomination of Samuel Alito, a proven conservative with a track record of opposing abortion, to the Supreme Court helps President Bush regain some of the political capital he lost amid the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers. But the President will almost surely have to spend some of it pushing Alito's nomination through the Senate. ..."These people will likely determine the fate of Alito's nomination," said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. He expects moderates like Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter will be "put very much on the hot seat" to vote against Alito's confirmation.
Alito Nomination May Bring Long-Anticipated Judiciary Fight
Fox News
Just hours after President Bush nominated federal Judge Samuel Alito (search) to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, partisan warriors on Capitol Hill began preparing for a looming dogfight over the conservative jurist. ..."It sure sounded like ideology when it was Miers. Some Republican senators cannot say with a straight face that this is not about ideology. They opposed Miers because she seemed squishy on ideological terms," added Gerhardt, who teaches at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law.
Judge known for his beans, not his boasting
Cox News Services
At T.M. Ward Coffee Co., a cornucopia of caffeine near the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., Sam Alito is more famous as a judge of roasted beans than of legal briefs. ..."He's shy, very soft-spoken, a very private man. He does not wear anything about himself on his sleeve, his politics or anything else. In that way, he couldn't be less like Scalia," said Eric Muller, a University of North Carolina law professor who was hired by Alito to work for him in the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey in the late 1980s.
UNC News Tip: http://www.unc.edu/news/newstips/2005/supremetip103105.htmlBut Will It Stop Cancer?
The New York Times
Bernyce Edwards's daughter was 42 in 1997 when she died of breast cancer. It was just 69 days from diagnosis to death. And through her shock and grief, Ms. Edwards had a terrible worry: what if she got breast cancer, too? ...On the other hand, noted Dr. Robert Sandler, a gastroenterologist at the University of North Carolina, the finding that people who took aspirin on a regular basis had less colon cancer, also from population studies, was supported by a large study that he directed.
Security Paramount Issue in Va.'s Exurbs
The Washington Post
Jolynn Pehlke's house alarm has been working fine, and she hasn't heard about any recent break-ins in the neighborhood. Even so, she had the Siemens alarm guy out to her Loudoun County house the other day to double-check. ..."Predictability is important there," said John D. Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, who has studied suburbs like Loudoun across the country. "What is often panned and taken as an unfortunate label of suburbs being uninteresting, this is often what people are looking for. They want it to be clean, safe, with good schools and low taxes."
Edwards Works on Possible Bid in 2008
The Associated Press (National)
John Edwards came downstairs and found 5-year-old son Jack on the floor, arranging toy trucks in a column. "What are you doing?" the former North Carolina senator asked. "Making a motorcade," came the exuberant reply. ...He is presiding over a new poverty center at the University of North Carolina.
Regional Coverage
An "airport city" is in the works to encompass Kansas City International Airport property.
The Sun-News of the Northland (Liberty, Mo.)
The Kansas City Aviation Department has issued a request for proposals from developers for the 640-acre KCI Business Park. The park proposed by John D. Kasarda, Ph.D., would operate along an extended Tiffany Springs Parkway, which would connect Interstates 29 and 435 along the airports southern frontier. ...Kasarda coined the "aerotropolis" term. He directs the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Information Age finds newspapers unready (Opinion-editorial column)
The St. Petersburg Times
This is something my bosses and colleagues may not want me to say. But newspapers are in some serious trouble these days, and not just for the reasons we usually cite. ..."A newspaper's core product isn't news or information. It's community influence," said Philip Meyer, a professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age. "That's created with high-quality editorial product ... (In cutting staffers), newspapers aren't just eating their seed corn, they're burning down the barn."
State & Local Coverage
Good guys, good hair, good debate
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
They are both members of one of the world's most exclusive clubs -- defeated vice presidential candidates. They both have good hair. And they both are concerned about growing poverty in one of the world's richest nations. ..."John thinks you are under-taxed," Kemp quipped to about 300 people at the Center for Dramatic Arts at UNC-Chapel Hill on Monday. "I think you are over-taxed."
Politicians drop party tags to address poverty at UNC forum
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Get this: A Democrat and a Republican, each a prominent member of his party with a past vice presidential bid on his résumé, actually agreed with each other for most of an hour Monday. ...The director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC's School of Law, Edwards has spent much of the past year barnstorming the country to talk about the economic, racial and social issues related to poverty.
UNC picks up Burlington, Cone files
The Associated Press (N.C.)
Correspondence and papers from some of the giants of North Carolina's textile industry soon will be available for the public to peruse in Chapel Hill. International Textile Group has shipped tens of thousands of documents, photographs and other items from the founders of Burlington Industries and Cone Mills to the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus.Philip Morris looks at treating illnesses
The Winston-Salem Journal
For years scientists at Philip Morris USA have studied how the human lung delivers a highly addictive chemical, nicotine, to the smoker's brain. ... "A new device is badly needed," said James F. Donohue, the chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, who sits on the medical advisory boards of 16 drug companies.
County plans to hire a new attorney soon
The Charlotte Observer
After months of extending Fletcher Hartsell's contract as the Cabarrus County attorney, the board of commissioners is actively seeking his replacement. ...State law does not prohibit a person from representing more than one jurisdiction as an attorney, or to be an elected official and represent multiple jurisdictions, said Frayda Bluestein, a professor of law and government at the N.C. Institute of Government at UNC Chapel Hill.
Fuzeon sales get a boost
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
James T. Woodson started losing weight about 10 months ago. It was a sign that the cocktail of HIV/AIDS drugs he was taking was starting to fail. ...Dr. Charles van der Horst, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, called the guidelines a "bible" for physicians treating patients with HIV/AIDS. Van der Horst, who started prescribing Fuzeon shortly after it became available, thinks that the change in the guidelines will prompt physicians to prescribe Fuzeon before patients run out of other treatment options.
Attorneys cry foul in Surry man's case
The Winston-Salem Journal
Attorneys for a Surry County man scheduled to be executed next month allege that law enforcement suspected his trial attorney of dealing in drugs the year before the trial but did not pursue a criminal investigation. ...Rich Rosen, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the Actual Innocence Commission, said that with the state's establishment of a public capital-defender's office legal representation has improved for people charged with capital murder.Mama Dip, Smith to talk cookbooks
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Local celebrity chefs Mildred "Mama Dip" Council and Bill Smith will discuss their new cookbooks today and Nov. 14, respectively, at UNC-Chapel Hill. Council, of Mama Dip's Kitchen on Rosemary Street, will speak about her second book, "Mama Dip's Family Cookbook," from UNC Press.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct05/MDipSmith102405.htm
Triangle educators debate racial issues at conference
News 14
Smart black students being accused of "acting too white" is an issue Triangle educators are debating at a youth and race conference this week. ..."It's a serious issue in North Carolina,” said William Darity with the African-American Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill. He says while the "acting white" stigma does play a part, student performance has more to do with school structure and curriculum for minorities.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct05/slavery100705.htmDuke, UNC, WakeMed working to make all records electronic
The Triangle Business Journal
WakeMed is joining a growing list of Triangle health-care providers that are dispensing with old-fashioned charts, folders and X-ray films and moving patient records onto electronic platforms. The undisputed leader in the field locally is UNC Hospitals, which for almost 15 years has been using computers to house medical records and schedule procedures.Downtown group scouts business Wi-Fi possibilities
The Chapel Hill Herald
The Downtown Partnership isn't quite ready to put its full support behind future efforts to build a wireless network in downtown, and possibly beyond. ...Shannon Schelin, director of the Center for Public Technology at UNC's School of Government, gave a presentation to the board. Gregg Gerdau, chairman of the town's Technology Committee, was there as well, as members of that committee have been actively exploring the wireless, or Wi-Fi, idea.Safety workshop gets group's backing
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership voted Monday to pay $650 to SafeSkills Inc. of Durham to conduct a personal safety workshop for downtown residents and employees. ...In other business, the partnership voted to work with UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for Public Technology to survey downtown business owners about possible free wireless Internet access.
Issues & Trends
U.S. still leads in higher education but can't rest on laurels (Opinion column)
The Los Angeles Times
"More will mean worse." It was the British novelist Kingsley Amis who prophesied that expanding universities would lower standards. he opening up of higher education is a global phenomenon. Forty-five years ago, when Amis made his prediction, just 5 percent of British students entered higher education. Today it's closer to 45 percent. And college entry rates are even higher in the United States. In 1960, 45 percent of high school graduates enrolled in college. Now it's 65 percent.
N.C.'s rising crisis (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
North Carolinians might note the story line on the latest College Board report: The price of higher education in America continues to rise, with tuition and fees at public four-year universities climbing an average of 7 percent last year. The Tar Heel state leads that deplorable charge. In the past decade, the cost of going to a state university has shot up for residents: as much as 70 percent at N.C. State and UNC Chapel Hill, the two largest campuses.
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.
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