Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Lightly Taxed Insurers Aim to Tap TARP
The Wall Street Journal
Several of the biggest U.S. life-insurance companies are seeking a piece of the taxpayer-funded $700 billion federal bailout program, but pay little in income taxes themselves, securities filings show. …The Journal's method was based on one developed by three accounting professors, Michelle Hanlon of the University of Michigan, Scott Dyreng of Duke University and Ed Maydew of the University of North Carolina. The trio published a paper this year arguing that the "long run cash effective tax rate" is the best measurement of a company's true tax obligations, in part because it eliminates distortions from a single year's swings.
Regional Coverage
Study calls for rules on fertilizer
The St. Louis Dispatch (Missouri)
Both the federal government and Mississippi River basin states should start setting pollution limits on the nutrients commonly found in farm fertilizers that wash into the river and ultimately end up in the Gulf of Mexico, a new study by the National Research Council concludes. …"However, efforts to reduce nutrients in the northern Gulf of Mexico will face significant management, economic, and public policy challenges, as well as a time lag — a decade at minimum — between reducing pollutants across the river basin and identifying water quality improvements downstream in the gulf," said Dave Moreau, a University of North Carolina professor who chaired the committee that wrote the report.
State and Local Coverage
The brains behind UNC's Flash Dance Party (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
File this under "Those Crazy College Kids." Just before midnight Tuesday, a dance party broke out at the undergraduate library at UNC Chapel Hill. You may have seen the video. It's gotten quite a lot of buzz this week.
Related Link:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/at-unc-a-serious-stress-buster-0
UNC winter commencement set Sunday
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Faculty chemistry professor Valerie Ashby will speak at this year's UNC Chapel Hill December commencement at the Dean. E Smith Center on Bowles Drive, Chapel Hill. The commencement will run from 2-3:30 p.m. Sunday. Chancellor Holden Thorp will preside at the ceremony for students who graduated in August as well as those graduating Sunday.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/top-chemist-to-speak-at-
december-commencement-sunday-dec.-14.html
UNC Does Like Christmas (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Last week I wrote this story about a decision by Sarah Michalak, who runs UNC Chapel Hill's library system, not to display two Christmas trees that for decades have greeted December visitors to two main campus libraries. Well, I got plenty of feedback about that, as did UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp. In fact, a day or so later, Thorp released a statement explaining that plenty of places on campus do in fact display Christmas trees.
Minding N.C.’s spigot (Editorial)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Why, when the skies are gray and the December chill conjures visions of anything but parched lake beds and sun-baked clay, would anyone want to talk about … water shortages? …Meanwhile, as growth strains the state’s ability to cope with droughts, a new joint study by researchers at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill calls, rightly, for new approaches to managing the state’s water. It suggests statewide goals for conservation and planning models that would anticipate where shortages are likeliest to occur.
Steeling ourselves for alternatives (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Arguments about the future of the automobile industry overlook the problem of steel supplies. Americans need a substitute for steel almost as much as we need a substitute for oil. (John J.W. Rogers is retired as the William R. Kenan Jr. professor of geology at UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Fox Business goes live from UNC-CH
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Robert Gray, an anchor at Fox Business Network, will report live today from UNC-Chapel Hill. Gray will be in Chapel Hill for a series called "Opportunity in America: My Hometown," in which Fox Business Network reporters examine how their hometowns have changed.
Technology that's music to her ears
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When Rachel Skergan was diagnosed with congenital deafness shortly after she was born, her parents made a choice that would alter her life: She would not be taught to sign with her hands or read lips. …Because music is such a complex sound, research now focuses on software that would allow an audiologist to better program a processor to each person's hearing damage, said Charles Finley, a biomedical engineer who teaches at UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State University. Finley was part of a group of Triangle researchers who in the mid-1980s came up with the multiple-electrode design that cochlear implants still follow.
UNC doctor earns award
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Stephan Moll, M.D., recently received the first Medical and Scientific Leadership Award given by the National Alliance for Thrombosis and Thrombophilia. Moll, an associate professor in the division of hematology and oncology at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, received the award in recognition for his work as a co-founder of NATT.
Researcher receives grant
The Chapel Hill Herald
An AIDS researcher at UNC's School of Public Health is the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to study best practices in the fight against pediatric AIDS. Frieda Behets, associate professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Public Health, will conduct research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assess traditional and non-traditional antenatal and delivery services in government-designated health zones.
Law students are honored
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Herald
Students at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Law have been recognized with the Pro Bono Law School of the Year award for providing free legal assistance to New Orleans residents. UNC law students have been spending spring and winter breaks working in the area since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005.
Related Link:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/unc-law-students-honored-for-katrina-work
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/government-and-law/unc-law-students-earn-pro-bono
-school-of-the-year-award-for-work-in-new-orleans.html
Undergrads award grants
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The Committee for Promoting Change, a group of 10 undergraduates enrolled in a UNC Chapel Hill philanthropy course, awarded two grants of $1,500 each to the Literacy Council of Union County and Western North Carolina Workers' Center. "Promoting Change through the Nonprofit Sector" is a one credit hour, pass/fail course offered by the Carolina Center for Public Service's Public Service Scholars program.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/students/unc-students-provide-nonprofits-with
-grants-while-learning-philanthropy-in-the-classroom.html
Dispatcher honored for Carson case work
The Chapel Hill Herald
A UNC 911 dispatcher was named UNC Chapel Hill's Officer of the Year for her work in helping to solve the Eve Carson murder case. Kimberly Walker-Barnhardt received the award at the Salute to Community Heroes night held at The Europa Center Thursday. …Many people began calling with tips, said UNC Police Chief Jeff McCracken. "She was able to pretty quickly determine that out of all those calls that this one particular call was of importance and she directed it to the Chapel Hill Police Department so it could be acted upon," McCracken said.
Issues and Trends
N.C. budget woes delay med school
The Charlotte Business Journal
The UNC System is backing off plans to establish a medical school at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte by 2011. …The start of a Charlotte campus is part of a $450 million plan that also includes expansion of the UNC Chapel Hill and East Carolina University medical schools.
Access to gas from landfill backed
The Chapel Hill Herald
County commissioners on Thursday expressed support for a proposal that would grant access to gas from the county's landfill to UNC, but agreed that they should proceed cautiously before voting on the agreement in January. …UNC would be responsible for all operating costs, and the county in exchange would receive monthly payments from UNC for a percentage of the heating energy value.
UNC, Duke unite in colorful fight
The Triangle Business Journal
The next time Mother Nature decides to grace Chapel Hill with a cloudless, Carolina-blue sky, she might want to have a good defense attorney on speed dial. …A federal appeals court has ruled that the use of school colors in combination with other symbols of a university or phrases referring to the school can constitute trademark infringement.
System shock (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…After a legislative thumbs-down in 2007 to a request for staff reinforcements, finally some additional money was set aside this past summer. (It took the high-profile murders of UNC-Chapel Hill's student body president and a Duke graduate student, allegedly by suspects on probation at the time, to get officialdom's collective head out of its collective fanny.)
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2932/story/1330944.html