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International Coverage

Everything will be fine – just not quite yet
Money Week (United Kingdom)

… I'm also less concerned about food shortages across the world than many. The fact that there are now more obese people in the world than starving people – 1.3bn versus 800,000, according to Prof Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina – surely tells us that hunger is a matter of politics and logistics. And those are more solvable problems than a worldwide lack of land or faltering productivity.

National Coverage

Doping scandal may hurt Lance Armstrong foundation
The Associated Press

Lance Armstrong has overcome cancer, rival cyclists and nagging allegations of doping to become one of the world's best-paid athletes and a sought-after pitchmen…. Armstrong was never going to make as much money as Woods or basketball star LeBron James because his sport is more of a niche, said John Sweeney, director of sports communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication. What's valuable about him is his personal story of overcoming cancer.

The Most Connected Capitalists
Forbes

When it comes to building new, high-growth companies, credibility means everything. And having street cred means having all the right connections. That's why Ted Zoller, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of North Carolina, went looking for the most well-connected entrepreneurs, financiers and advisors in U.S.–the very people America's fragile economy depends on to take risks and create jobs.

Regional Coverage

Local artist paints an important reminder of N.C.'s black history
The Charleston City Paper (Charleston, S.C.)

Fifty years ago, four young African-American men sat at a lunch counter and helped spark a civil rights revolution. … That Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., recently became the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. The sit-in is the inspiration for Charleston artist Colin Quashie's enormous new painting, "Service," which was unveiled last week at the University of North Carolina's School of Government at Chapel Hill in an event that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the Greensboro Woolworth's.
UNC Release: http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3793/68/

State and Local Coverage

Employers tackle exploding costs
Triangle Business Journal

Tired of dealing with rising medical costs for employees, some employers are taking matters into their own hands. … Sandra Green, a health management professor in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill, says that data is now available to identify the health care providers with the best outcomes. Insurance companies and employers are better able to funnel patients in those directions.

UNC Offers Hands-On Class for Entrepreneur
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

UNC students and staff looking to launch the next big thing can sharpen their entrepreneurial skills by taking a series of special courses this fall. Launching the Venture teaches entrepreneurial teams how to create new commercial and social ventures. Patrick Vernon is an instructor for the program. He says it provides entrepreneurs not only with informative lectures but the business tools they’ll need to get their projects off the ground.

Roses & raspberries
The Chapel Hill News

Roses to the organizers of a new community garden that provides fresh fruits and vegetables to members of UNC's housekeeping staff. The 8,000-square-foot garden, run by Claire Lorch, grows all sorts of vegetables, from the familiar zucchini to less well-known varieties such as kohlrabi. That good fresh food is offered, free of charge, to the housekeepers and other low-paid university workers. That can make a huge difference – in nutition, flavor and variety – on the dinner table for them.

Five on death row claim bias
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

The bias claims that five death row inmates filed Tuesday seeking to have their sentences converted to life without parole are the first of many expected in coming days under the fledgling Racial Justice Act. The law, one of only two of its kind in the country, was adopted last year to try to combat racial disparities in death sentences. … "This is a really important endeavor," said Robert Mosteller, a UNC-Chapel Hill law professor who has studied the state's long struggle with race and the death penalty. "It could be incredibly path-breaking throughout the United States if we can do this and do it right."

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority getting calls on fluoride addition
The Star-News (Wilmington)

If it's so good for you, why did the New Hanover County Health Department decide to send out a release noting the health benefits of it? And why does the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority have information from the Centers for Disease Control on its Web site promoting its virtues? … Gary Rozier, a veteran professor of health policy and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has heard the all of these concerns before. "But this is one of those rare public health measures that's difficult, if not impossible, to find any objection when you take into account all of the facts, including risk and safety," he said.

Tar Heel treasures (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Many thanks for your excellent coverage of the 90th birthday of UNC System President Emeritus William Friday. Combined with your reporting of friends' concerns about the health of former UNC-CH basketball Coach Dean Smith, this journalism well describes what Tar Heels like to think of as traditional North Carolina values.

UNC drops research site project
The Chapel Hill News

UNC will give up a $14.5 million federal stimulus grant to expand its animal research center in rural Orange County. While rare, the university has returned grants before, such as when researchers leave. This time, officials realized they would have needed to put up too much other money – an estimated $20 million – to make the planned expansion work. "We had talked about repurposing the grant," Associate Vice Chancellor Bob Lowman said Monday night. "NIH, I think correctly, said no. They told us we would need to use the money for its intended purpose or relinquish the grant."
Related Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/8989744/article-UNC-decision-a-curious-one?

Issues and Trends

Obama Nominates UNC Alum for Attorney Post
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

UNC alumnus Ripley Rand could be the next U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. President Obama nominated Rand to the position, which oversees cases in Orange and Durham counties and the cities of Greensboro and Winston-Salem. He’s been a Superior Court Judge for North Carolina since 2002. Before that, he was an assistant D.A. in the 10th Prosecutorial District in Wake County.

Perdue whittles down pile of bills to sign into law
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Gov. Bev Perdue is almost finished with the stack of bills left on her desk by the legislature when it adjourned last month. She signed at least eight more into law on Tuesday. Perdue has signed at least 102 of the 109 measures, according to the legislature's records, and plans to sign four military-related bills today at a ceremony at a National Guard center in Morrisville. Perdue has until midnight Monday to veto bills, sign them into law or let them become law without her signature. Perdue told reporters Tuesday that she didn't know whether she would veto any of those remaining. They include legislation that would amend state purchase and contracting laws, allow University of North Carolina campuses to keep money realized by energy savings and help turn abandoned manufacturing sites into locations to develop renewable energy sources.

Report critical of North Carolina stimulus projects
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)

Republican Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.) and John McCain (Ariz.) released a report Tuesday profiling wasteful stimulus projects. The primary goal of the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was to put people to work. But the senators claim some of the money has gone toward questionable projects, including seven in North Carolina. More than $750,000 the University of North Carolina at Charlotte received to develop a computerized choreography program.

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