Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Families with disabled children struggle
United Press International
U.S. families, including those in the middle class, raising children with disabilities report severe hardships at rates that are chilling, researchers say. "We were shocked to find such high rates of hardship among upper-income families," lead investigator Susan L. Parish of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work said in a statement.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-study-chilling-
hardship-rates-among-families-raising-disabled-children.html
State and Local Coverage
Research targets cancer's stealth
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Cancer cells are deadly traitors, good cells gone bad. They evade the body's defense systems, passing themselves off as organisms that pose no threat. But researchers at UNC Chapel Hill's Eshelman School of Pharmacy are working on a way to blow their cover. Moo J. Cho, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular pharmaceutics, is creating a delivery system that would embed bacterial elements in a cancer tumor in order to encourage the body's immune system to recognize and attack the tumor.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-researcher-
aims-to-unmask-cancer-cells-to-trigger-bodys-immune-system.html
Cancer Institute cites UNC team
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A team of population scientists from UNC Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have been honored by the National Cancer Institute. ..The members of the team are Cathy Melvin, Ph.D., project principal investigator and a research associate professor at UNC's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and in the department of maternal and child health in the UNC School of Public Health; Alexis Moore, dissemination core project director; Katya Roytburd, project manager; and Liz Harden, research assistant.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/national-cancer
-institute-honors-unc-lineberger-scientists.html
UNC to kick off series on South
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's Center for the Study of the American South will kick off its fall programming with a photography exhibit that opens Aug. 28 and a lecture on the antebellum South on Sept. 9. The exhibit, "Holding Out and Hanging On: Surviving Hurricane Katrina," will feature photographs by Thomas Neff, an art professor at Louisiana State University. He spent 45 days in New Orleans after the hurricane, interviewing and photographing residents who did not leave the city.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/humanities-and-social-sciences/katrina-
photos-lectures-on-the-south-set-at-unc.html
Ronald Strauss Named New Associate Provost
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
Ron Strauss will provide a new face to the UNC executive associate provost position, a role recently left vacant by UNC's Steve Allred.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/unc-dentistry-
professor-appointed-executive-associate-provost.html
UNC Public Safety To Issue Citations For Smoking
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
The Department of Public Safety at UNC will begin handing out citations to anyone who smokes within any smoke-free area on campus. The new rule will go in affect on September 2nd, and each citation will result in a $25 fine and $121 in court costs, according to the Department's Randy Young.
Driver's ed could get a revamp
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina will spend $33 million this school year on a generations-old rite of passage: driver's education. But there is little evidence that the program's 30 hours in the classroom and six behind the wheel help young people avoid crashes. "There's a pretty widespread belief that this is an antiquated system," said UNC-Chapel Hill professor Rob Foss, an adviser to state government on highway safety.
Older women battle eating disorders
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…The number of women older than 30 seeking help for their disorder is growing, says Cynthia Bulik, director of the eating disorders program at UNC-Chapel Hill. Fifty percent of her patients are over age 30, and that number is rising, she says. Bulik says societal pressure for lifelong thinness is prompting many women to develop the disorders later in life. It usually has a devastating effect on their families.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1186899.html
Russia, Georgia … and us (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The war between Georgia and Russia is partly caused by an oil pipeline that runs through Georgia from the Caspian Sea. Americans can do something about this war, not by sending troops to Georgia, but by convincing Russia and everybody else that pipelines won't be important in the future. (Before his retirement, John J.W. Rogers was the William R. Kenan Jr. professor of geology at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Students will pack 1 million meals for hungry
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
On Saturday, thousands of college students will pack an estimated 1 million meals to aid hunger relief efforts across the world. …It now includes student volunteers from eight area universities packaging meals on three campuses, including NC State, UNC Chapel Hill and East Carolina University in Greenville.
Cooked or raw? Nutrition varies (Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
You know the mantra: Eat more fruits and vegetables. But I'm often asked whether there's more nutritional value when they're cooked or raw. Fresh or frozen? How about canned? (Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a registered dietitian and a clinical assistant professor in the department of health policy and administration in the school of public health at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Carolina Inn restores nod to tradition
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Don't tell Ken Zogry it's just wallpaper. To Zogry, the historian of UNC-Chapel Hill's Carolina Inn, the four 5-by-7-foot "Scenes of North America" being restored this week were part of a 1940s redecorating scheme meant to appease critics of what has been called liberal creep.
Fair will focus on preparedness
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Hospitals will host an Emergency Preparedness Fair Sept. 23-25 in the lobby of the N.C. Children's Hospital. …The event will coincide with National Preparedness Month and representatives from many of UNC Health Care's community and campus partners will be present and available for questions.
Issues and Trends
23% of young adults not registered to vote
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A new report says that one-fourth of North Carolina's young people, ages 18 to 25, are not registered to vote, despite record registrations. …Duke, East Carolina, N.C. Central, N.C. State and UNC Chapel Hill are among the universities that are early voting sites where students can register and vote on the same day.
Probation patches urged
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A federal report highlighting flaws in North Carolina's troubled probation system was the subject of a meeting Wednesday between state and federal corrections officials in Washington. The National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency, was called in last spring to do an independent evaluation of the state's probation system after problems were exposed in the handling of the two suspects charged with killing Eve Carson, president of the study body at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Related Link:
http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/aug/21/report-cites-
problems-in-probation-system/
Underage drinking, driving offenses up in New Hanover
The Star-News (Wilmington)
Law enforcement officials link the deaths of at least five people in New Hanover County this year to drivers younger than 21 getting behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs. In Chapel Hill, the recent arrests of two University of North Carolina athletes shined a spotlight on the issue of underage drinking and driving. But more quietly in the Wilmington area, many other young drivers are getting caught drinking and driving before tragedies occur – and it's not necessarily because of stricter enforcement.