Oct. 15, 2007

Carolina in the News

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

National Coverage

Fox Business Network Ready for Its Debut
Associated Press
They "intend to target middle America," said Chris Roush, a business journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That likely means coverage of such topics as how to save for retirement or get the lowest credit card rates, or when is the right time to buy a house, he said.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/736650.html

UPDATE: Can Murdoch's Fox Business Channel Bring Wall Street To Everyman?
Dow Jones
In the end, though, Fox Business and CNBC may peacefully co-exist, given the latter's willingness to cater to a small but affluent audience, says Chris Roush, associate professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina, and director of the Carolina Business News Initiative.

NASCAR Flap Raises Caution Flag for Dems
Associated Press
"What do they know about NASCAR that we don't?" said Dr. David Weber, a professor of medicine and public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill...Weber said everyone should be up to date on standard vaccinations, he but saw no need for special vaccinations to visit a health care facility or a NASCAR event. Debbie Crane, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said such shots are recommended for "general health" for all adults — but not for any specific circumstance.
Related Link: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20071015/SPORTS18/710150376/1048/SPORTS

The pill doesn't boost breast cancer death risk
Reuters Health
The findings are "broadly reassuring," Dr. Herbert R. Peterson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. "There just doesn't appear to be any concern about women using the pill at younger ages from the standpoint of breast cancer."

European Scientists Dominate Nobel Prizes; Doris Lessing Wins for Literature
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Mario R. Capecchi, Oliver Smithies, and Sir Martin Evans will share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing the technology to manipulate individual genes precisely in mice. Mr. Smithies, born in 1925 in Britain, is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/nobel100807.html

White House Is Leaning on Interim Appointments
The New York Times
Michael J. Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who studies the federal appointment process, said that he believed the large number of vacancies reflected a widespread fear by Republicans that the next president, whoever it is, will be a Democrat, and that there is no job security at the top ranks of the executive branch.

Our house
The Boston Globe
"There are all sorts of reasons this will probably take place," says Rebecca G. Adams, a University of North Carolina sociologist who studies adult friendships. "Baby boomer women have been on their own more than previous cohorts have. . . . Many women who lived a very traditional married life are feminists and likely to want to return to an all-female environment.

Mormons on a mission to tell their story
The Chicago Tribune
Still, Laurie Maffly-Kipp, associate professor of religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said American culture presumes the public has the right to know.

Regional Coverage

Mapping A Slave's Path To Freedom
Harford Courant
Historians first began using computers to aid their research in the 1970s, said John Wood Sweet, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor and Smith scholar who befriended Blevins and helped him frame and publicize his research.

Research, politics transform universal preschool movement
The Sacramento Bee
"The impact on what's happening to young children is like the effect of the Industrial Revolution on older children," said Dick Clifford, a senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina who has tracked developments for decades and sees a profound historical shift in the making. "Then, public schools became the norm. Now, it's preschool."

Drop the Twinkies, and step away from the cart! (Editorial)
The Sacramento Bee
And the Nobel Prize winners for medicine -- Mario Capecchi at the University of Utah, Martin Evans at Cardiff University and Oliver Smithies at the University of North Carolina -- won for genetically manipulating stem cells. The Nobel committee credited their discoveries as leading to "the creation of an immensely powerful technology."
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/nobel100807.html

Nobel laureate pushes science, self to the edge
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Capecchi -- along with colleagues Oliver Smithies of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and Sir Martin. J. Evans of Cardiff University in Wales -- shared the $1.54 million prize announced Monday for research involving the manipulation of mouse genes, allowing for more precise study of human diseases.

Domestic violence is your cause, too
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
The PREVENT Institute, a program supported by the Centers for Disease Control and operated by the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center, identifies the primary prevention of violence as a goal worthy of vigorous and sustained attention.

Henderson chose 'best' without looking at others
Las Vegas Sun
"If you're really serious about professionalism , that means you are going to look for the best person," said David Ammons, a public administration and government professor at the University of North Carolina. "It's not a bad idea to let the inside candidate compete with the outside people to see what's out there."

Powerful government jobs in less-experienced hands
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington)
Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina who studies the federal appointment process, said he believes the large number of vacancies reflect a widespread fear by Republicans that the next president, whoever it is, will be a Democrat, and that there is no job security at the top ranks of the executive branch.

Mascot’s death touches TV producer from Mitchell (Column)
Times Mail (Indiana)
Many may remember the tragedy. Jason Ray, 21, the mascot for the University of North Carolina’s basketball team was hit by a car just a short while before an NCAA tournament game in March. He died three days later. Although Ray was from the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, he died in New Jersey.

State & Local Coverage

Committee prepares for search
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/Chapel Hill Herald
Erskine Bowles gave the UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Search Committee some candid advice Friday: Speak through one voice and maintain confidentiality…"This is the single most important job that any of you will undertake at this university," Bowles told the panel. "Nothing positive happens without great leadership. I think you put together a great committee -- it is diverse and it is representative of the university as a whole."

Bowles lists ideal chancellor traits
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
(Erskine) Bowles told the panel to find "a great chancellor for my alma mater" and reviewed a long list of attributes he'd like to see: leadership, fundraising and administrative skills; passion for North Carolina, UNC and public universities; appreciation for liberal arts as well as research; an understanding of intercollegiate athletics and its place; and a willingness to be a leader and partner with other universities in the UNC system.

Make successor search less confidential (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
The search committee tasked with finding a successor to departing UNC Chancellor James Moeser heard a somewhat mixed message at its first meeting the other day… The university system president, Erskine Bowles, reminded the 21-member committee that "people love this university and, by God, they own it."…Bowles told the committee members that "the only way you're going to have an effective search [is] if you maintain confidentiality."

`It's hard to rally around math class' (Letter to the editor)
The Charlotte Observer
Was surprised to see your report on the UNC Chapel Hill professor's Nobel Prize! More often, you prefer negative stories about the university. But effective fundraising, Nobel Prizes, unparalleled sports marketing (leading the nation in the sale of sports clothing and memorabilia), high rankings in U.S. News & World Report and graduates in the upper ranks of business, journalism and research are all evidence of UNC's healthy balance between academics and sports.

Little rise foreseen in UNC tuition
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tuition increases will vary by campus, and fees are likely to rise, too. But the overall outlook is good, Bowles said, pointing out that UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser has already indicated he will recommend no increase in tuition for in-state undergraduates.

UNC dedicates FedEx building
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC formally dedicated a new building devoted to innovative global education efforts on Friday… "We knew when we began planning this building that we wanted it to be a major statement about Carolina and all we envision for it to be in the 21st century," UNC Chancellor James Moeser said at the dedication. "Bold. Innovative. A symbol of progress and change for our university, the people of North Carolina and our world."
UNC News Release:
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/oct07/FedExdedication101207.html

ESPN special on former UNC mascot
The Charlotte Observer
Jason Ray, the UNC senior who suited up as university mascot Rameses but died after a March accident, is the subject of an ESPN.com feature available on the web site today.
Note: News Services coordinated the interviews involving Jason Ray's parents and escorted the crew as it filmed campus scenes.

New lungs carry man to top triathlon
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Johnson, a 35-year-old from Wilmington, received a double lung transplant at UNC Hospitals in 2001 to replace organs ravaged by a lifetime of cystic fibrosis..."We love to get the e-mails and pictures from all his events," said Dr. Audrey Neuringer, associate medical director of UNC Hospitals' lung transplant program.

Home schooling popularity grows in WNC
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
The individualized attention and focus home-schooled students receive allow them to perform well academically, said Gerald Unks, a professor in the School of Education at UNC Chapel Hill.

In search of a city's spark and soul
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The power of Florida's argument is how it braids together two seemingly disparate elements: creativity and economic growth. In fact, they are not so closely entwined, according to Emil Malizia, chairman of the Department of City & Regional Planning at UNC-Chapel Hill.

When a heart stops, hypothermia helps
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
"It makes sense that it would work," said Dr. Laurence Katz, an associate professor of emergency medicine at UNC Hospitals. "The brain dies the same way, no matter how it's injured."

Master plan to be ready by year's end
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Work has been going on about a year-and-a-half, Carpenter said, with the facilitator being James Johnson, who is the William R. Kenan Jr. distinguished professor of entrepreneurship at UNC. Johnson also directs the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

Board ruling goes against Knight
Rocky Mount Telegram
State law dictates that Knight's removal as a voter in Rocky Mount Ward 1 immediately makes his seat vacant, said David Lawrence, an expert on state and municipal law at the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Issues & Trends

`First in sports cash'? Academics still rule
The Charlotte Observer (Letter to the editor)
Your Oct. 7 editorial, "First in sports cash," cites a Chronicle of Higher Education story reporting our fiscal 2007 total for private commitments to athletics, $51 million, as the nation's highest.

Students' debt burden
The News & Observer (Editorial)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has its Carolina Covenant for the poorest students, ensuring they will graduate debt-free. What a wonder it would be if something like that could help middle-class kids as well. It must be said that the UNC system overall remains a fairly good bargain -- it's doubtful that graduates are carrying debt comparable to those at private or other public institutions.

Raise the floor
The Charlotte Observer (Editorial)
That's not fair to kids or taxpayers. A new proposal by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors sets minimum standards and raises them over five years. It's long overdue.

State universities focus on the future (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The aptly named UNC Tomorrow Commission has an ambitious task ahead -- setting priorities for the state's public universities for the next 20 years. On Wednesday, with a forum at N.C. State, the commission wrapped up its first phase, which involved gathering residents' input at 11 meetings across the state.

Burr urges UNC system to shift with global economy
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The tagline of U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's speech and video presentation before the UNC Board of Governors on Friday was intended to be clever, and it did inspire some chuckles, but the overall tone of his globalization-themed talk did not provide much levity.

Birth control costs climb at colleges
The Charlotte Observer
In the Carolinas, the higher prices mostly affect students at schools like UNC Chapel Hill or N.C. State, which don't require medical insurance. Some schools, such as UNC Charlotte, require insurance for full-time students, so students are charged only their health plan's co-pay for birth control.

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.

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