Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Monitor weight gain before pregnancy, new guidelines say
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Women should aim to reach a healthy weight before they conceive, according to new U.S. guidelines that highlight the risks of carrying excess pounds for moms and for newborns. …Pregnancy is not the time to lose weight, said Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who co-authored the guidelines. "It's not, 'Hey you gained enough, now you need to stop,'" Siega-Riz said. "Let's take stock of where you're at and start gaining correctly."
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/May/eatingfortwo
National Coverage
Packing on too many pounds during pregnancy
The Associated Press
Eating for two? New guidelines are setting how much weight women should gain during pregnancy — surprisingly little if they're already overweight. …But pregnancy is not a time to lose weight, stressed guidelines co-author Dr. Anna Maria Siega-Riz of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "It's not, 'Hey you gained enough, now you need to stop,'" Siega-Riz said. "Let's take stock of where you're at and start gaining correctly."
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/May/eatingfortwo
How Much Weight Should You Gain During Pregnancy?
U.S. News & World Report
Since 1990, women have been told to gain between 25 and 35 pounds during pregnancy if they're at a healthy weight to begin with, and now—after an exhaustive review of current research—the Institute of Medicine today issued long-awaited new guidelines telling us to gain…25 to 35 pounds. …"We weren't asked to do this in our review," says IOM panel member and public health expert Anna Maria Siega-Riz at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, in response to my question during a press conference this morning.
Diagnosis for Mass. health care: Pricey
"Marketplace" American Public Media
Since Massachusetts overhauled its health-care system in 2006, the state has gotten almost universal insurance coverage. But a new study shows that the program, which is supposed to cut health costs, does come at a price. …Bill Roper is CEO of the University of North Carolina health-care system. It serves low-income patents, many of them uninsured. "We're drowning in a tidal wave of indigent care. We have lots of customers, and some of them pay us". Roper says even with its flaws, the Massachusetts system is far better than health care in the rest of the country.
Teaching 'Peace Corps' attracts recent graduates
CNN.com
…Teach For America is like a local Peace Corps serving some of the country's poorest public schools in inner cities and in rural areas. It has grown every year since its inception in 1990, sending 20,000 college graduates into the nation's neediest classrooms for a two-year commitment. This year, amid a tight job market, it is more popular than ever. …"Eleven percent of the entire Ivy League senior class applied to join, 20 percent of African-American seniors at Ivy League schools, 8 percent of the University of Michigan and University of North Carolina," Huffman said, "just an incredible outpouring of interest by people competing to teach in low-income communities."
Words of Wisdom for 2009 grads (Blog)
USA Today
…South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: … Don't allow yourselves to be affected by the cynicism of oldies like us. Dream, dream, dream of a world that is going to be without terror because … nobody will have become so desperate, desperate because of poverty, of disease, of hunger."
Regional Coverage
Deadly aftershocks
The Philadelphia Daily News
What Lisa McHale would like you to know is the way it once was, not the way it ended. Because it is vital to her that you know her husband Tom as she will always remember him – the intelligent, principled, fun-loving man she fell for so long ago back in college. …Such accounts are supported by a 2007 survey of 2,552 former NFL players by Center for the Study of Retired Athletes at the University of North Carolina: 37 percent had a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than other men their age.
North Carolina Students Study Cherokee Culture
KOTV-TV (CBS/Tulsa, Okla.)
While school is wrapping up for most students, another group is just beginning to hit the books. Students from the University of North Carolina are in Tahlequah taking a crash course to learn about the Cherokee Nation. All of the students will spend a lot of time in the classroom over the next three weeks. …"I think they are going to get really a crash course that is inestimatable in terms of its value for them. It's going to be a life changing experience for many of them," said UNC Assistant Professor Tol Foster.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2578/1/
State and Local Coverage
Obese women urged to gain less in pregnancy
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Expectant mothers are simultaneously cautioned by doctors to gain no more than 35 pounds and egged on by friends and family to splurge because they're eating for two. …"There need to be societal changes," said Anna Maria Siega-Riz, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/May/eatingfortwo
Duke, UNC grads flock to Teach for America
The Triangle Business Journal
The recession may have left college graduates this spring with slim pickings on the job front, but it’s provided Teach for America with a fat crop of new hires in North Carolina and nationwide. …Eleven percent of Duke University’s senior class applied to Teach for America, and the 7 percent of the graduating class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that applied with the nonprofit made Teach for America the No. 1 choice of UNC’s graduating seniors.
Philanthropy must adapt to change (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Fayetteville Observer
Private foundations are among the greatest of American innovations. They funnel private wealth into tax-sheltered institutions that in turn support public institutions and purposes. At their best, they have been catalysts for civic and cultural development, economic revitalization and educational innovation. (Hodding Carter III is a former president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
Seattleite up for UNC nursing dean
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Kristen M. Swanson, a nationally recognized professor and chairwoman of the family and child nursing department at the University of Washington, will be recommended as dean of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Chancellor Holden Thorp told the university's board of trustees Thursday that they soon would receive a recommendation for approval of Swanson's appointment by mail ballot.
Related Link:
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/05/25/daily41.html
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2587/107/
State Health Plan In Crisis, Part 2
WUNC-FM
Today’s the last day for state employees to enroll for health insurance for the upcoming year. And they’ll find different benefits, co-pays and prices from last year. That’s in part due to the overhaul of the plan last month in the General Assembly when legislators put more than 250 million dollars in to the State Employees health plan. (Laura Linnan, associate professor of heath behavior and health education in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was featured in this broadcast.)
Which side is UNC's Roper on? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
There's been a lot about North Carolina's state health plan in the press these days: The contract that state leaders were foolish enough to sign, the heavily redacted document that N.C. Blue Cross (the insurance provider) provided state officials when members of the General Assembly asked to see the contract their associates had approved.
Town to consider Carolina North development agreement on June 22
The Chapel Hill Herald
In less than a month, the Town of Chapel Hill will be asked to approve a development agreement with UNC that would pave the way for the long-awaited and much-debated Carolina North project to move forward. Officials have set June 22 as the date the Town Council will consider the agreement for the expansive research and mixed-use academic campus that is planned for 250 acres two miles north of the university's main campus.
Basnight: Illness won't affect job
The Associated Press
N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight said he has no plans to leave the legislature despite learning that he has a rare degenerative nerve disease that affects his coordination but not his cognitive abilities. …"Being able to do what he is doing is not a problem," said Dr. Souvik Sen, Basnight's neurologist and the director of the stroke center at the UNC Chapel Hill medical school.
Furloughs could prove costly to UNC Healthcare
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
UNC Healthcare officials are scrambling to find ways to furlough physicians, nurses and other workers under budget-cutting measures ordered by Gov. Beverly Perdue. …"We are all state employees," said Karen McCall, UNC Healthcare vice president for public affairs and marketing. "It's going to be expensive for us."
UNC has a title to reclaim (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Back in 1993, UNC Chapel Hill set a state record by collecting 1,052 pints of blood at its one-day blood drive. At the time, it was the largest single-day collection in North Carolina, a record that held until last September.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2573/107/
Issues and Trends
UNC system sounds budget alarm
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Public university leaders, who already were laying off people and cutting services because of falling state revenue, have begun planning for even larger cuts that could eliminate degree programs and research centers, and lead to new rounds of layoffs and reductions in classes. …Rob Nelson, the UNC system vice president for finance, sent a memorandum to all campuses this week after seeing a budget drafted in the N.C. House of Representatives that would require 11 percent cuts across the system. He asked campuses to prepare for cuts as high as 15 percent, but thinks the cuts that emerge from the legislature will be lower.
NCSU freeze on academic centers affects Easley project
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
N.C. State University has blocked former first lady Mary Easley from performing a substantial part of her controversial $170,000-a-year job. …Terri Lomax, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, announced a moratorium Thursday on the creation of new academic centers. Lomax was speaking during a meeting called by senior administrators to ask staff and faculty to start planning for a potentially double-digit budget cut.
Pay cuts start for state employees
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
State employees got the first of two smaller paychecks Friday, the result of efforts to fill a more than $2 billion shortfall in the state budget. In April, Gov. Bev Perdue cut pay for state employees by 0.5 percent. The total pay cut will be taken out of employees' paychecks from May and June.
Atwater attorneys request a delay
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Lawyers for Demario Atwater, one of two suspects accused of killing Eve Carson, the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, want more time to prepare his defense in federal court. Earlier this year, a judge set Nov. 2 as the date for hearing the federal carjacking and kidnapping charges against him.