Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Lack of sex desire linked to more symptoms
United Press International
Women with low levels of sexual desire — often a result of menopause — are more likely depressed and suffer physical symptoms, U.S. researchers said. …Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals said those with the disorder were more than twice as likely to report health issues including back pain, fatigue and memory problems.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-study-postmenopausa
l-womens-loss-of-sexual-desire-affects-health-quality-of-life.html
Beyond the end of the universe
The National (United Arab Emirates)
For most of us the universe is unimaginably vast. But not for cosmologists and astronomers. …“This discovery adds to our pile of puzzles about cosmology,” says Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
National Coverage
Prosecutor: Ky. coach should have known heat risk
The Associated Press
A high school football coach should have realized a player could collapse from heat stroke in the broiling weather during practice, a prosecutor said in announcing reckless homicide charges in a youth's death. …From 1960 through 2007, there were 114 heat stroke cases in all levels of football that resulted in death, according to a report compiled by Dr. Frederick Mueller at the University of North Carolina for the American Football Coaches Association in February 2008.
Will Fosamax Be Merck’s New Vioxx?
The Epoch Times
For Merck, 1999 was a good year. In its 64-page annual report, Merck predicted arthritis medicine Vioxx—“Our Biggest, Fastest and Best Launch Ever!”—would prevent Alzheimer’s disease and colon cancer. …And, since the damaging January 1 revelations about jawbone death and cancer, one Merck-associated physician, Dr. Nicholas Shaheen, director of the University of North Carolina Health Care’s Center for Esophageal Diseases, is urging people to stay on Fosamax because its “cancer risk doesn’t outweigh” its benefits.
Regional Coverage
PRP coach indicted in football player's death
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
The head football coach of Pleasure Ridge Park High School has been charged with reckless homicide in the death of a 15-year-old player who collapsed from heat stroke at practice. …Dr. Fred Mueller, director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, was among several sports experts who said yesterday they had never heard of a high school or college coach facing such an indictment.
When is too much too much? (Column)
The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, Pa.)
Area football coaches sighed at the thought, taking deep breaths because they know it could happen to any coach in any arena. …From 1960 through 2007, there were 114 heat stroke cases that resulted in death on all levels of football from sandlot to the pros, according to a report compiled by Dr. Frederick Mueller at the University of North Carolina for the American Football Coaches Association in February 2008.
Clean air means longer life, study says
WPVI-TV (ABC/Philadelphia, Pa.)
If the air in your city is clean, you can tack on about five months to your life. …"This is a compelling paper," said Dr. David Peden, chief of pediatric immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "The results speak to the need for better standards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
State and Local Coverage
Grants support excellence in education
The Fayetteville Observer
Holden Thorp says he is still known as the worst athlete to ever attend Terry Sanford High. But Thorp, who as Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the youngest university leaders in the country, said a lot can be learned by watching his university’s coaches. With a voice that was still recovering from a UNC basketball victory the night before, Thorp spoke at Thursday’s Excellence in Education Reception at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum and passed along some of the insight he’s learned from watching Butch Davis, Roy Williams and others motivate their teams.
Inauguration speech leaves Thorp optimistic
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC Chapel Hill and the university system as a whole have certainly heard a lot of bad news lately in the form of gloom-and-doom budget cuts that have expanded steadily since late last fall. Earlier this week, however, Chancellor Holden Thorp — a chemist — found a dash of welcome optimism in President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.
UNC expectations low as BOT sets funding requests
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
As is customary for this time of year, the UNC Board of Trustees on Thursday established a set of priority funding requests to send to the N.C. General Assembly. But Chancellor Holden Thorp reminded the board that the Legislature's budget process will not be "normal" this year — a fact that translates into low expectations that there will be money for priority needs.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1378684.html
Duke, UNC, NCSU hit with double-digit fundraising dips
The Triangle Business Journal
Fundraising is down at the Triangle’s three research universities, and campus leaders are bracing for even more pain in the second half of their fiscal years. Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill each failed in the first half of fiscal year 2009 to match the level of donations they received during the first six months of fiscal year 2008.
Basnight offers up a hike in 'sin tax'
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight on Thursday proposed raising taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help prop up crumbling state revenue numbers. …Basnight justified a possible tax increase on tobacco and alcohol by emphasizing the billions of dollars in annual health care costs blamed on those products, citing studies by the Centers for Disease Control and University of North Carolina.
UNC awarded $52,784 grant
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The St. Baldrick's Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to raising money for childhood cancer research, has awarded a grant of $52,784 to UNC Chapel Hill. …The UNC grant will be used to fund a Spanish interpreter for the pediatric oncology division at North Carolina Children's Hospital. The interpreter will improve patient care by facilitating fluid communication between the entire care team and patients and their families.
Professor gets $4.9M grant
The Chapel Hill Herald
Andrew Olshan, professor and chair of epidemiology in UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded a $4.9 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes of birth defects. The grant provides five years of funding for research that will be coordinated by the N.C. Center for Birth Defects Research and Prevention, which contributes data to the National Birth Defects Prevention Study.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/new-unc-study-to-focus
-on-causes-of-birth-defects.html
Duke to honor Winfrey, Moeser with degrees
The Charlotte Observer
Duke University plans to give honorary degrees to Oprah Winfrey and former UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser in May, the university announced Wednesday. According to the university, Moeser and Winfrey will be among seven recipients of honorary degrees at the commencement ceremony May 10.
Faculty Service Award winner
The Chapel Hill Herald
A UNC business school professor, who applies management expertise to alleviating poverty and promoting entrepreneurship, has been honored with the General Alumni Association's Faculty Service Award. The association's board of directors presented the award to James H. Johnson Jr., director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center, which is supported by the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/campus-and-community/business-professor
-honored-for-service-to-unc-community.html
Depression, low desire linked
The Chapel Hill Herald
Women with low levels of sexual desire, often as a result of menopause, are more likely to be depressed and to suffer physical symptoms such as back pain and memory problems than women who report higher levels of desire, according to a new study by researchers at UNC and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/unc-study-postmenopausal
-womens-loss-of-sexual-desire-affects-health-quality-of-life.html
Physics on 'happiest idea'
The Chapel Hill Herald
Eric Adelberger, a University of Washington professor emeritus of physics, will talk about "Testing Einstein's Happiest Idea by Watching Things Fall Sideways" at 8 p.m. Monday at UNC's Chapman Hall 211.
UNC News Brief:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/science-and-technology/phi-beta-kappa-visiting
-scholar-to-talk-about-einstein-gravity.html
Works show Faustian bargain between man and carbon
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
An exhibit of prints and posters related to coal production opens Saturday at the Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "At the Heart of Progress: Coal, Iron, and Steam since 1750 — Industrial Imagery from the John P. Eckblad Collection," includes about seventy-five pieces selected from the collection of John P. Eckblad.
Performance art, traditional theater and memoir meet
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The idea of wellness as a frame of mind comes up in both Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and Lisa Kron's "Well." …A lot of things Lisa believes are questioned in the memoir play running in rotating repertory with "The Glass Menagerie" at the UNC Center for Dramatic Art in Chapel Hill. Both PlayMakers productions also focus on memory and mother-daughter relationships.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/arts/playmakers-to-explore-
mother-daughter-relationships.html
UNC photograph makes the cut
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A North Carolina Children's Hospital photograph by Brian Strickland has been selected by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions for "Champions," its 2009 traveling exhibition of 50 photographs. …"Cystic fibrosis is the most common genetic disease that can shorten life span in the Caucasian population," said Alan Stiles, physician in chief at N.C. Children's Hospital and chairman of pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine.
UNC professor credits pilot's calmness
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
University of North Carolina professor David B. Sontag is hoping to get his luggage back after the flight he took last week ended up in the Hudson River in New York. Sontag, a communications professor, was aboard US Airways Flight 1549, which became famous on Jan. 15 when pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger glided the plane to an emergency landing in the Hudson River.
5 UNC students organize forum on state's future
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Agriculture, energy and transportation will be the topics of the day when the inaugural 10 Years Ahead Conference kicks off Saturday morning on the UNC campus. The summit of campus, political and business leaders is the brainchild of five UNC students — with three Morehead-Cain scholars among them — who longed for an immediate role in shepherding North Carolina to future prosperity.
UNC SDS to petition Price
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC Chapel Hill students and other community members will deliver a petition to U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., at his Chapel Hill office, 88 Vilcom Circle, at 4 p.m. today expressing outrage at his support for House Resolution 34 condoning Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip. Members of UNC Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society, UNC SDS, collected hundreds of signatures on campus this week from students challenging Price's support for the Israel's invasion.
Issues and Trends
A fiscal reckoning, but where are all the protests? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Now that the various transition ceremonies are over and the cheering, shivering crowds have dispersed, I'd like to ask a potentially impolite question: where are the protesters? Gov. Beverly Perdue has announced significant reductions in planned state spending for 2008-09 — more than $200 million out of Health and Human Services, $156 million out of state funding for public schools, $150 million (6 percent) out of state appropriations to the University of North Carolina system, and as much as a 7 percent reduction in other state agencies.
Former Gov. Bob Scott dies
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Former Gov. Robert W. Scott, a folksy and plain-spoken member of North Carolina's most famous political family, died this morning at age 79. …Scott proved to be a risk-taking governor. He raised the gasoline tax to build more roads, pushed through the state's first tax on cigarettes, started the first pilot kindergarten programs, and led the consolidation of the 16-campuses of the University of North Carolina into one system.
Related Link:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/4384509/
Put waste station on UNC's campus (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
I live down the road from the proposed waste transfer station site along Hwy 54. …The elephant in the living room, so to speak, about this abysmal decision is that it is essentially allowing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to export their trash to a still rural part of Orange County and protected watershed. (Suzanne Nelson, Mebane)