October 27, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Marsh to Make Payments More Transparent
The Washington Post
One day after Marsh & McLennan Cos. ousted its chief executive, the nation's largest insurance broker said it will tell its clients exactly how much they are paying for its services and renounce back-door payments from carriers...."The middlemen and the insurance companies are going to be swept by a wave of transparency that is going to be dramatic in its scope," said University of North Carolina accounting professor Robert M. Bushman.

How to Find the Perfect College (or Not) for $39.95
The Washington Post
I get many e-mails from companies that say they have the secret to picking the best college for their clients....Ward said "when I applied to college two years ago, I chose the University of Virginia for its location, size, and low cost. Both UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill, two of my top-choice schools, were included on my list of matches in this survey.

Girls who take pride in promiscuity face dangers, experts say
Knight Ridder News Service
Heather, a 16-year-old with sandy blond hair, remembers how it felt the time she had sex on the same day with two different boys....The highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia - diseases that can cause infertility - are found among girls ages 15 to 19, according to a report released in February by the University of North Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Take-home squad cars save city money, report says
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wa.)
Allowing police officers to drive to and from work in their patrol cars saves the City of Tacoma approximately $200,000 per year, a consultant has found, although the savings could be greater if more officers lived closer to the city....Building a secure parking facility would cost approximately $900 per car every year, said Donald Lauria, a University of North Carolina professor who served as lead analyst.

Online exchanges let political junkies bet on candidates
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For Jonathan Sargent, any talk about a presidential candidate's political stock rising or falling is no mere figure of speech....In an academic paper, economist and market researcher Koleman Strumpf at the University of North Carolina said that a large, active and highly public market for betting on presidential elections existed throughout much of U.S. history before World War II.

State & Local Coverage

UNC opens cutting-edge education center
The Chapel Hill News
Smith Middle School finally got its fourth wing last week, a $1.2 million high-tech addition courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Volunteers train to monitor voting
The News & Observer
The idea that a citizen could be denied the right to cast a ballot appalls Maria Darlington. So on Nov. 2, she'll spend four hours at a Triangle precinct to monitor voting...."We don't care who people vote for," said Sarah Zambon, a UNC-Chapel Hill law student who is helping train volunteers.

Gov. Easley's re-election bid couldn't have been better scripted
The Associated Press (N.C.)
A campaign strategist couldn't have scripted Democratic Gov. Michael F. Easley's re-election bid any better...."We've been watching a Jim Hunt who never got tired of campaign events," said Thad Beyle, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

UNC campaign donors story misleading, unfair (Letter to the Editor)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Stating that 80 UNC employees gave about $40,000 to the Kerry campaign [Herald-Sun, Oct. 24] is an unfair representation of the issue that leaves out a lot of important information. First of all, just because a citizen lists UNC as his or her employer does not necessarily mean the person is a faculty member, as the article suggests.

What's in a name? A lot, local companies feel
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
As Merix Bioscience prepared to take its therapies into the clinic -- and potentially to the public markets -- management knew the 7-year-old company needed a new name....Young firms are much more likely than those with well-established brands to change their names, said Sridhar Balasubramanian, a marketing professor at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

An intelligent, but unengaging `Richard'
The Charlotte Observer
Note the missing Roman numeral. The Shakespearean production now at Playmakers Repertory Company is not that frequently staged orgy of high-stakes villainy, "Richard III," but rather its subtler, more poetically ambitious and far less audience-friendly successor, "Richard II."...

Basketball dean says flu shots a slam dunk
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Dean Smith always liked his seniors. That's why, on their last home game at Carolina, the former UNC men's basketball coach always made sure to start his seniors, even if they had been benchwarmers during the season.

Issues & Trends

Town expects 70,000 Halloween revelers
The Chapel Hill News
Town and university police are bracing for a wild weekend of homecoming and Halloween festivities that is expected to draw tens of thousands of people and cost tens of thousands of dollars.

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.