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Sept. 4, 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
Picking up the pace in business TV
The New York Times
For 13 years, Bloomberg Television has happily remained something of a secret. ... Chris Roush, a business journalism professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who edits the Talking Biz News blog and worked in Bloomberg’s Atlanta bureau, said he perceives Bloomberg’s content to be stronger than CNBC’s but thinks the graphics are a distraction.
Day care comes of age
Gannett News Services
“You've brought this new life into the world, and you think, ‘How can anyone take care of this baby as well as me?' So to put her in day care is, to some extent, a leap of faith,” says Nikki Horberg Decter, a lawyer in Boston. ... “These are not the bullies teachers dread,” says study co-author Margaret Burchinal of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Kids who score 60 are referred to counseling for possible behavior disorders.
Education must fit childrens' brains
Minnesota Public Radio
Pediatrician Mel Levine of the University of North Carolina speaks at the Chautauqua Institution in New York about ways to adapt educational techniques to the way childrens' brains actually work. Mel Levine is a pediatrician and child development expert at the University of North Carolina and co-founder of 'All Kinds of Minds' and author of 'A Mind at a Time' and 'The Myth of Laziness.'
Related Link: http://www.polkcountydemocrat.com/articles/2007/08/31/news/01zlevine.txtPeople, Profit, and Planet
The Chronicle of Higher Education
M.B.A. students spend a lot of time studying how to improve a company's bottom line, but at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, they're usually measuring three of them. Nearly a third of its students focus on sustainable development, which means that their days are spent figuring out how to shore up a company's financial position, improve its environmental impact, and enhance its social standing.
Regional
Finances might hurt USC-run radar system
The State (Columbia, SC)
The beach on this wild sea island carries few signs that people ever have been here. ... A five-year, $20 million federal program to monitor the ocean is about to end for the Southeast coast. That’s expected to delay installation of about a dozen radar tracking systems between Cape Hatteras and Miami, said Harvey Seim, an oceanographer familiar with the initiative. ... “It’s pretty remarkable, because it covers such a broad swath of the ocean,’’ said Seim, a University of North Carolina oceanographer who has coordinated efforts to install radar on the Southeast coast.
For visiting prof, all roads lead South
The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
You can't take the South out of a Southerner, but John Shelton Reed has learned that it's possible to take the "South" out of the South. ... Reed, of east Tennessee, has been "minding" the South since joining the faculty at the University of North Carolina in 1969, when he was asked to take over teaching a course on the sociology of the South.
Related link: http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=271333State & Local
Breast imaging at UNC goes digital
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Starting Wednesday, all mammography performed by UNC Health Care will be done with digital breast imaging equipment. UNC Hospitals becomes the first large medical center in North Carolina to completely eliminate film screen mammography in favor of the newer digital breast imaging technology. "This is good news for women because it means we will be able to detect more breast cancers at earlier stages in their development. Earlier detection allows us to begin treatment earlier and greatly improves a woman's chances of a complete recovery," said Cherie Kuzmiak, UNC's director of breast imaging.
Shaw, Johns Hopkins unite for center
News 14 Carolina
The Institute for Health, Social and Community Research at Shaw University announced the university is teaming up with Johns Hopkins for the new Shaw-Johns Hopkins Center for Prostate Cancer Research. Shaw already has a partnership with UNC Chapel Hill, and university officials are excited about the news. “I’m extremely ecstatic about this … new relationship with Johns Hopkins University,” said Daniel Howard with the Institute. “Their cancer consortium as well as what we’re doing with UNC [Chapel Hill] and their cancer consortium. I think it’s a great opportunity for Shaw University to expand our research endeavors.”
UNC law school cracks
The News & Observer
Part of the law school at UNC-Chapel Hill was closed Friday when bricks bowed, concrete crumbled and windows cracked, forcing about 200 professors and students to hustle out of the building. The failure was apparently triggered by extreme heat this summer, which caused exterior brickwork to expand on the 39-year-old main part of the building, said UNC Law Dean Jack Boger. Newer buildings are constructed to allow for such heat expansion, he said.
Student reporters to attend Olympics
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Within the next few weeks, UNC will sign an agreement with Renmin University of China that gives a select group of journalism students the best seat in the house -- a shower, bed and valuable work experience, too -- for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. UNC is one of 13 universities in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia recruiting students to participate in the Olympic News Service International Volunteers Project. Qualified students will work as flash quote reporters assigned to Olympic venues, where they will interview athletes and relay the information to other ONS officials. The student volunteers' work will be translated and distributed to various media outlets.
Campuses join war on gas-guzzlers
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
While more people are driving hybrids and other nontraditional vehicles, others are ditching their cars altogether in favor of short-term rentals. ... UNC-Chapel Hill provides four permanent parking spaces around campus for Zipcars, shuttles the cars to the garage for maintenance and guarantees a minimum usage.
Healthy workers cash in
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A 36-year-old exercise junkie, Terri Talton looks like a model employee. When off the clock, the senior security specialist at Progress Energy works out at least five days a week and regularly competes in 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer charity races. ... The paternalistic streak behind the wellness initiatives could provide a dangerous scientific rationale for the age-old tendency to judge people by their physical appearance, said Dan Cable, a UNC-Chapel Hill business professor who has studied the link between salary and height.
Figures show poverty increased in Durham
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The number of people living in poverty is on the rise in Durham. ... According to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC, about 76,000 Durham County residents under 65 did not have health insurance in 2005. The number of people in poverty increased by about 25 percent between 2005 and 2006.
Clinton leads field in survey
The Charlotte Observer
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton can claim stronger support for president in the Charlotte region than any other leading candidate in either party, according to an Observer/WCNC-TV poll conducted last month. ... Clinton's showing in the poll is likely the product of any candidate's most basic asset -- name recognition, said political analyst Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at UNC Chapel Hill.
WWII band back on campus
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Twice a day from the summer of 1942 to the spring of 1944, the U.S. Navy B-1 Band marched back and forth from its barracks in the historically black Northside neighborhood to the ROTC Armory at the western edge of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. ... To honor their role, UNC-CH is recognizing band members this weekend as honorary members of the Marching Tar Heels.
Lafayette and romance
The Fayetteville Observer
Have you brushed up on the facts about the Marquis de Lafayette before the big 250th birthday bash this week? Don't worry. Lloyd Cramer can help you. ... Kramer is a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Portrait of pride, prejudice
The Charlotte Observer
In 1957, a 15-year-old black girl strode into a sea of angry white faces and forever changed the picture of race relations in Charlotte. ... Nine pictures from that morning are preserved in the collection Sturkey donated to UNC Chapel Hill. The other eight show completely different scenes. He got one chance at this photo and he took it.
School board turns to laptops
The Charlotte Observer
Union County school officials are working to take the paper out of monthly board and committee meetings. ... "Board members have to be aware that chatting and e-mailing during a meeting could be violating the law," said Fleming Bell, professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government. "My advice is, think of whatever you send back and forth as being a piece of paper."
Asheville City Council: Peace talks
The Mountain Express (Asheville)
Two years after a community group shined the spotlight on some businesses’ violations of the city’s Unified Development Ordinance—and a year after those complaints were supported by a consultant’s report—Greenlife Grocery says it’s ready to take steps to address the problems. ... Early discussions with Staples, undertaken before consultant David Owens of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill had presented his report, might have gone more smoothly if the neighborhood group hadn’t appealed the matter to the Board of Adjustment, Cape maintained.
Death penalty to be topic during UNC academic year
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Members of the campus and local communities will examine the death penalty from all points of view during the 2007-2008 academic year at UNC.
UNC News: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug07/deathpenalty083007.htmlPanthers LB Morgan gambling in football after 5 concussions
The Associated Press
Bring up his newborn son and Dan Morgan's face lights up. ... So why is the Carolina Panthers middle linebacker risking his long-term health by trying to play again after sustaining at least five concussions? ... "It would concern me that if he's had five documented concussions, his risk does go up according to our data," said Dr. Julian Bailes, the medical director for the retired players study at the University of North Carolina.
Writers tackle Southern culture
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
In his cross-country odyssey "Travels with Charley," John Steinbeck lamented the way mass media and commerce were pushing aside and diluting localism and regionalism. ... James L. Peacock, Kenan professor of anthropology at UNC, looks ahead to what the South is becoming in his study "Grounded Globalism: How the U.S. South Embraces the World" (University of Georgia Press, $26.95, 311 pages)
Related link: http://www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch/author_az/2007.html#peacock
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2007/09/03/smallb4.htmlWake Schools' audit may sting
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Wake County school leaders are used to hearing about how good their schools are, but the message they will get this week is about what they are doing wrong. ... “It isn’t a public relations exercise,” said Fenwick English, a lead auditor with Phi Delta Kappa and a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Education, in today’s article.
Film festival, exhibit coming to Stone Center
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Exploring black identities in film and cross-cultural contexts will be among the topics discussed this fall at UNC's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
Issues & Trends
UNC Tomorrow plan needs input from you (Editorial)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Challenging times are ahead for North Carolina and its university system.
Hospital loses federal payments
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A patient death and a head injury to another prompted the federal government to make the rare move of halting payment to a state psychiatric hospital. ... In recent years, Dorothea Dix, the state mental hospital in Raleigh, Duke Hospital, Durham Regional Hospital, Pitt County Memorial Hospital, and UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill have all been threatened with the loss of Medicare and Medicaid privileges for lapses in care that were considered serious.
Report sparks UNC safety review
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Is UNC ready for an event like the one that happened at Virginia Tech University last fall? ...UNC campus officials have been meeting and studying ways to communicate quickly with people on campus. So far, some warning systems are in place, some aren't, and some need the assistance of students and others on campus to be completed.
Related Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-877259.cfmDo your homework before home repairs
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
So often in this column I have preached due diligence. Before signing any contract, particularly ones involving home improvement and home repair jobs, check out the business or handyman you're considering. Just when I think I dare not go there again, I get an e-mail from Shea Denning and realize that the warning bears repeating. Denning is an assistant professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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.
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