Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
International Coverage
Mental illness alone not a trigger for violence
Reuters (Wire Service)
Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression does not make a person more violent than anyone else but adding substance abuse does, researchers said on Monday. …Eric Elbogen of the University of North Carolina and colleagues tracked 34,653 people who gave detailed information from 2001 and 2003 in a U.S. government health survey about their mental health, history of violence and other issues.
The Parent Trip
The Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
Pregnant? Watch those extra calories. Pregnant women should ignore the old advice about eating for two, according to University of North Carolina research in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A review of 1,300 women found those who consumed extra calories, as well as fried foods and dairy products, were more likely to gain beyond what is recommended during pregnancy — that's 35 pounds or more for a woman with a normal body mass index.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/May/eatingfortwo
National Coverage
Firefighter case may keep Sotomayor in hot seat
USA Today
The most attention-grabbing case of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's began when a Connecticut city rejected the results of a firefighter-promotion test because whites outscored blacks and Hispanics. …University of North Carolina law professor Bill Marshall, a supporter of Sotomayor's nomination, said her action in the case reflected a sense of restraint and was an effort to read the law narrowly.
Sotomayor Critics Focus On Firefighters Case
"All Things Considered" National Public Radio
Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination is being met with questions about her views on race and gender. Her opponents are focusing on one decision, now on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, focusing on the incendiary issue of race, testing and allegations of special treatment for minorities. …At a White House teleconference this week, University of North Carolina constitutional scholar William Marshall contended that the New Haven decision is an example of judicial caution, since the panel was only following the prevailing law in the circuit.
Regional Coverage
Incoming chancellor’s colleagues congratulate Kansas
The Lawrence Journal-World (Kansas)
…Friends and colleagues of KU’s new chancellor — UNC Provost Bernadette Gray-Little — say she has a similarly interesting story to tell about what she’s built at this history-draped institution. …Without exception, people on the UNC campus this weekend who said they knew Gray-Little described her as calm, thoughtful and quiet. “Bernadette is not a rock star,” said Joe Templeton, a chemistry professor who also has served as chair of the faculty at UNC. “She’s a rock.”
Related Links:
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2009/05/25/daily43.html
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/may/30/chancellor-choice/?opinion
http://www.cjonline.com/news/state/2009-05-31/gray_little_on_being_a_jayhawk
http://www.bonnersprings.com/news/2009/may/29/regents-name-
new-ku-chancellor/?breaking
http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/KU-chancellor-looks-past-race
-gender/wtECTphAL0SrAFa8SjNQCQ.cspx
Sotomayor plays it by the book (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
It matters that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a Latina, just as much as it matters that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is the son of immigrants. But the cry of "identity politics" occurs only when anyone other than a white man is nominated for a high-profile position. …"Judge Sotomayor expressed real sympathy for the plaintiff and noted how hard he had worked on this, but said that they were essentially bound by previous decisions in the area," William Marshall, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law told ABC News. "I think it's important to recognize that her instincts in the case were one of restraint."
A closer look at the case that has Sonia Sotomayor under fire
The St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
In 2003, New Haven, Conn., offered a test to determine firefighter promotions. … And while many conservatives contend the case proves Sotomayor is a liberal "judicial activist" intent on setting social policy, several legal experts said the Ricci ruling suggests the opposite. "I think it's important to recognize that her instincts in the case were one of restraint," William Marshall, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said in a conference call organized by the White House.
Odds stacked against Sanford, experts say
The State (Columbia, S.C.)
Gov. Mark Sanford faces an uphill battle to win Monday’s U.S. court hearing over $700 million in federal stimulus money. That’s the assessment of most constitutional experts interviewed by The State. …Gene Nichol, a University of North Carolina law professor, expects Anderson to send the case back to state court, handing Republican Sanford a defeat and the GOP-controlled Legislature a victory. “The chances the federal court will abstain — refuse to exercise its jurisdiction so that the case can be decided in state court — are extremely high,” Nichol said.
Payments in Medicare HMO-style plans are targeted for cuts
The Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Seniors in Medicare HMO-style plans can expect their coverage to change — at least a little — if President Barack Obama and Congress refashion the nation's health-care system. …"Some of those plans are going to cut back on benefits or raise premiums and co-pays, or there may be some plans that don't make it and go out of business," said Jonathan Oberlander, a health-care management professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
Fibromyalgia: Patients say many doctors don't take them seriously
The Sacramento Bee (California)
Asked to describe the seemingly indescribable, to make real the manifestations of a medical condition that some still doubt even exists, fibromyalgia patients often rely on similes of the most wince-inducing sort. …That view is supported by Dr. Nortin Hadler, a rheumatologist and professor at the University of North Carolina. Writing in the Journal of Rheumatology, Hadler states bluntly that fibromyalgia is all in the mind.
Summer jobs tight for teens
The Houston Chronicle (Texas)
…The problem, for these two teens, is the problem plaguing the youths of Houston this summer: Traditionally entry-level jobs are harder to come by than during any other summer in their lifetimes. …Unemployment is bad for teens in the long term, even aside from their empty pockets this summer. A study by researchers at the University of North Carolina found that 18-year-olds who don’t have jobs tend to earn less in later years than teenagers who do.
Experts sift data on storm water pathogens in N.C.
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
The construction of a bacteria-catching filter at an ocean outfall here is on hold, but a study of eight Outer Banks outfalls is overflowing with information on the water traveling through the storm drains. …"There's 900,000 to 1 million gallons flowing through each pipe for every inch or two of rain," said Nancy White, director of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Coastal Studies Institute in Manteo. "There's tens of thousands of cells of bacteria in every liter of water. The hard part is figuring out where the bacteria is coming from."
State and Local Coverage
Administrator leaving UNC-CH to be a chancellor
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Bernadette Gray-Little, UNC-Chapel Hill executive vice chancellor and provost since July 2006, will leave her high-ranking post at the end of the summer to become the first female and first black chancellor at the University of Kansas. Officials at both universities announced the news Friday.
Related Links:
http://www.dailytarheel.com/news/university/gray-little-becomes
-kansas-chancellor-1.1756242
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=10566
Innovation will always have a place here (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Officials with Research Triangle Park next week will host the International Association of Science Parks' annual conference in Raleigh. This essay on RTP's importance to this region and state was written by Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead, N.C. State University Chancellor James L. Oblinger, and UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp…
Disaster planning at the ground level (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Four years later, no one can forget the horrifying images from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Many were killed and thousands more were rendered homeless, helpless or hopeless. …For the last four years, through a $2 million cooperative agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, MDC Inc. — with the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center — has been working in eight states and the District of Columbia to research and test solutions.
A long time coming (Editorial)
The News & Record (Greensboro)
The FedEx hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport has been a long time coming. …John D. Kasarda, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business and an aviation industry expert, outlined this vision based on his concept of an "aerotropolis." In effect, it's an industrial-commercial zone built around the airport and composed of businesses whose commerce and products depend on rapid transportation and precision logistics. The FedEx hub would be a key engine powering this development.
UNC faculty, staff, students get space funds
The Chapel Hill Herald
More than a dozen faculty, staff and students from UNC have been awarded funding by the North Carolina Space Grant Program. N.C. Space Grant is a consortium of academic institutions that promote, develop and support aeronautics and space-related science, engineering and technology education and training in North Carolina. The program partners with NASA, industry, nonprofits and state government agencies.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2571/74/
Union Independent: A school for scholars
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
…Union Independent School, opening July 15, offers North-East Central Durham children like Joshua access to a tuition-free, private education for grades K through 8. The $10 million school represents a partnership between Union Baptist Church, a 4,000-member church on North Roxboro Street, and the UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School. …The Durham Scholars Program for after-school, weekend and summer enrichment was started in 1996 by the late Frank Hawkins Kenan and James Johnson Jr., a professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. Hammond insisted the church house the program.
UNC-CH study gauges effect of drugmakers' ads
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…But the spike in doctor visits didn't result in a lot of additional prescriptions for the drug Zelnorm, researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill reported Sunday in a study of how marketing strategies affect drug sales. …Dr. Spencer Dorn, a gastroenterology fellow at the UNC-CH School of Medicine and lead author of the study, said there were "positives and negatives" to the advertising strategies by the maker of Zelnorm.
UNC Release:
http://www.med.unc.edu/www/news/drug-industry-marketing-direct-to
-consumers-and-doctors-may-lead-to-prescription-overuse
Meet Gene Nichol
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
When Gene Nichol was Dean of UNC’s law school he helped found the controversial Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, and later hired John Edwards to run it. Then he left to be the president of The College of William and Mary. His time in Virginia was also controversial. He’s back at UNC now. So, what makes a legal academic a lightning rod? Host Frank Stasio finds out today at noon.
Note: "The State of Things" is the statewide public affairs program airing live at noon weekdays and rebroadcast at 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays.
Carolina hopes to recapture blood drive donorship title
The Chapel Hill News
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a title to reclaim. No, not that one. The 2009 men's basketball national championship is secure. But until last fall, the University also held a record for the largest single-day, single-site blood drive ever in North Carolina.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2573/107/
UNC poet receives national award
The Chapel Hill News
The book "Old War" by poet Alan Shapiro of UNC has been awarded the Ambassador Book Award in poetry. Shapiro is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of English and creative writing in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2582/107/
UNC students, community groups to push for campus hate speech policy
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
Students and community groups are gathering to press for a campus hate speech policy after recent protests of two speakers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC students and various community groups will meet outside the courthouse in Chapel Hill on Monday to protest what they call the hate speech of the speakers and the student group that invited them.
Activists due in court in Tancredo protest case
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Seven activists arrested following two campus protests in April are scheduled to appear in court today. UNC-Chapel Hill senior Haley Koch, a Morehead-Cain scholar, faces a charge of disturbing the peace for her role in protesting former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo's speech April 14. Koch and another student held a banner in front of Riley Matheson, president of the campus chapter of Youth for Western Civilization, as he introduced Tancredo, a staunch opponent of mass immigration.
Related Link:
http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/triangle/609998/unc
-ch-protestors-due-in-court-monday/Default.aspx
Love it: Twitter builds connections (Column)
The Charlotte Observer
I've heard Twitter called “the service you never knew you needed until you had it.” I'd say that's about accurate. At first, I was skeptical. Now, I can't imagine life without it. …To get news from around the country, I simply follow publications I like. If I miss something important, I can count on the other people I follow to get it in front of me – like rumors about the provost of UNC Chapel Hill leaving to become chancellor at Kansas (which came true). (Andrew Dunn, the Observer's Van Hecke business reporting intern this summer, is a rising senior at UNC Chapel Hill and editor of The Daily Tar Heel.)
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/754667.html
Program offers working poor a way up
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
…Programs such as these can be successful, said Dennis Orthner, a professor at the UNC-CH School of Social Work who studies poverty. The belief that you can't change is one of the biggest barriers to mobility, Orthner said. "Low-income families need to be told their lives can get better. Still, there's no way around the need to improve their education or job."
Appeals court judges and 'policy' (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At Duke Law School back in 2005, Judge Sonia Sotomayor said that "the court of appeals is where policy is made." Conservative pundits have jumped on these words as proof that the judge is an "activist" who will legislate her own preferences on us all from the Supreme Court bench. This is nonsense. Appellate judges do "make policy," and it's an uncontroversial and even necessary piece of their job description. (Eric L. Muller is Dan K. Moore distinguished professor in jurisprudence and ethics at the UNC School of Law.)
Death penalty route doubtful
The Winston-Salem Journal
Forsyth County prosecutors are unlikely to pursue the death penalty against the man accused of killing Winston-Salem police Sgt. Howard Plouff, who was shot two years ago while responding to a fight at a nightclub on Jonestown Road. …"What it sounds like is they're trying to negotiate what the ultimate charge will be," said Richard E. Myers II, a law professor at UNC Chapel Hill. "You want to make sure you only bring the appropriate charge, and you don't have to drop charges."
Donnelley files for bankruptcy
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A daunting combination of deteriorating revenue and more than $9billion in debt has pushed yellow pages publisher R.H. Donnelley into bankruptcy. …The stock's collapse is bad for employees as well as outside investors, said Thomas Lee Hazen, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Got a gripe? Here's how to make it go away
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Troubleshooter has dealt with a lot of people unhappy with businesses of late. And as we've helped them solve their problems, we've learned a few things along the way. …Tip No. 2: Follow the proper channels. Don't start with writing a letter to the vice president, says Tim Flood, assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler business school. It makes you seem unreasonable.
Summer, a lovely, wonderful season (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News
Summertime in Orange County. …Russia's Bolshoi Ballet is coming in June. The Bolshoi rarely tours: in the past two years they've performed solely in London, Paris and Amsterdam. Add Chapel Hill to that list of international hot spots. …Welcome our many visitors and help them recognize what a lovely and wonderful place this is, so that when they go home they'll say that even though there are some warm days in Orange County through these summer months, nobody here sweats. We glisten. (Laurie Paolicelli, Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Center)
Collages depict the art of work at Ackland
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The best way for a novice viewer to approach the work of collage and assemblage artist Aldwyth is to get up close. …Beginning today, the Ackland Art Museum at UNC will open the first major retrospective of Aldwyth's work, titled "Aldwyth: Work v./Work n. — Collage and Assemblage 1991-2009." This exhibit has 51 of Aldwyth's works — 10 large collages, seven small collages and 34 assemblages. After the Ackland visit, the show will travel to museums in Charleston and Savannah.
Related Link:
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=10543
Just who is really the ‘illegal scum'? (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Charlotte Observer
…Today people aren't ranting much about Iraq, but about illegal immigrants. And if you think it's just a civil policy debate, you aren't paying attention. Some serious ugliness is loose in America, whipped up in part by politicians trying to appease angry voters. …Yes, a study from UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan Institute found that in 2004, North Carolina spent $61 million more on social services for Hispanics than it collected in taxes they paid. An estimated half the state's Hispanics are here illegally.
Issues and Trends
Bowles rallies supporters to lobby for UNC (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC system President Erskine Bowles is calling in reinforcements in the battle over the budget. Bowles sent e-mail messages to the UNC Board of Governors and the UNC system's chancellors, asking them to activate their supporters to contact legislators over the weekend and early this week. And he offered talking points with the clear message that an 11 percent budget cut, now under discussion in the House, "would have severe and lasting negative impacts on student access and the quality of education our universities can offer."
$200 tuition hike is regrettable, reasonable (Editorial Column)
The Charlotte Observer
Here's one more sign, as if one were needed, that North Carolina is mired in a recessionary jam: It may call on students in public colleges and universities to bear a higher burden of a growing budget shortfall. That's despite a state Constitution mandate that the costs of a college education must be provided to the people free of expense “as far as practicable.” But with a nearly $4 billion hole in the upcoming state budget, we are finding out what “as far as practicable” really means. In the current debate, it means that college students hereabouts may have to cough up $200 more a year just for tuition – nearly double the increase they expected to pay next year at some campuses.
UNC System Prepares For 11 Percent Budget Cut
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
More layoffs and larger class sizes could be on the way to the UNC System if the House's recent budget recommendation of an 11 percent cut is approved. …Tommy Griffin, UNC Employee Forum Chair, said the idea of any budget cut has UNC employees concerned about what it means for them. "We've lost some good key people because of the layoffs," Griffin said. "It takes a certain amount of folks to keep the university running and if we keep going with the cuts, we're going to have a hard time maintaining."
Town seeks locals' visions
The Chapel Hill Herald
How to guide and shape the future of the town will be the focus of a multi-pronged effort to coax ideas out of those who will be most affected: the residents. …To accommodate a communitywide process, the town has set up a series of community forums that begin today, posted an online survey and has created visioning walls located around town on which to draw responses. …They will be led by a team directed by Vaughn Upshaw, a UNC Chapel Hill School of Government faculty member who specializes in long-range planning and visioning for public governance.